AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


OF 


LIEUT.-GEN.  WINFIELD  SCOTT, 


MEMOIRS 


LIEUT.-GENERAL  SCOTT,  LL.D. 


IN    TWO     VOLUMES 

VOLUME   I. 


NEW  YORK: 

9 

SHELDON   &   COMPANY,   PUBLISHERS, 


335    BROADWAY, 
1864. 


ESTEBED,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864,  by 

WINFIELD    SCOTT, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


JOHN  F.  TROW,  C.  8.  WESTOOTT  &  Co., 

STEHEOTYPER,  AND  ELECTROTYPEH,  PRINTERS, 

46,  48,  &  50  Greene  St.,  New  York.  19  John  St.,  N.  Y 


CONTENTS. 


PAOR 

INTRODUCTION, .      ix 


CHAPTER  I. 

BIRTH — PARENTAGE — SCHOOLS — COLLEGE, 


CHAPTER  n. 
LAW  STUDIES — THE  BAR — TRIAL  OF  BURR, 

CHAPTER  HI. 

CHANGE  OF  PROFESSION— ADVENTURE  AS  A  VOLUNTEER — RETURN  TO 

THE  BAR — ENTERS  THE  ARMY, 18 

CHAPTER  IY. 

FOUR  YEARS'   VACILLATION   BETWEEN   PEACE   AND  WAR — THE  BAR 

AND  THE  SWORD, 30 


iv  Contents. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PAGH 

WAR  DECLARED — DOUBLE  PROMOTION — MARCH  TO  CANADA,    .         .      49 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NIAGARA    FRONTIER  —  CAPTURE    OF    WAR   VESSELS  —  BATTLE    OF 

QUEENSTOWN A   PRISONER   OF   WAR PAROLED,      .  .  .          54 

CHAPTER  VH. 

KINGSTON — PRESCOTT — MONTREAL — QUEBEC — SAILED    FOR    HOME — 

GUT  OF  CANSO — WASHINGTON, 69 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

COLONEL   AND   ADJUTANT-GENERAL — FORT   GEORGE — OGDENSBURG — 

HOOP-POLE  CREEK — FRENCH  MILLS, 86 

CHAPTER  IX. 

REFLECTIONS    ON    PAST    DISASTERS  —  CALLED    TO   WASHINGTON  — 

BUFFALO — CAMP  OF  INSTRUCTION — CAMPAIGN  OF  1814  OPENED,     110 

CHAPTER  X. 

RUNNING  FIGHT — CHIPPEWA, 124 

• 
CHAPTER  XI. 

INVESTMENT  OF  FORTS — BATTLE  OF  NIAGARA  OR  LUNDY'S  LANE,     .     135 


Contents.  v 

CHAPTER  XH. 

PAGB 

HORS  DX  COMBAT — PRINCETON  COLLEGE — PHILADELPHIA — BALTI 
MORE — WASHINGTON, 147 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
REDUCTION  OF  THE  ARMY — VISIT  TO  EUROPE — ENGLAND — FRANCE,  .     165 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
ENGLAND — LONDON — BATH, 168 

CHAPTER  XV. 

REFLECTIONS  ON  PEACE  AND  WAR — THE  CANKER  ABOLITIONISM — 

STATE  RIGHTS — NULLIFICATION — REBELLION,    .         .        .        .175 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

• 

MARRIAGE — RECEPTION  OF  SWORDS  AND  MEDAL,      .         .         .  191 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

TEMPERANCE  MOVEMENT — MILITARY  INSTITUTES — TACTICS — DEATH 
OF  GENERAL  BROWN — MACOMB  PROMOTED — ANIMATED  CORRE 
SPONDENCE,  204 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

BLACK  HAWK  WAR — CHOLERA  IN  THE  ARMY — INDIAN  TREATIES — 

ROMANTIC  TALE, 217 


vi  Contents. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

PAGB 

REJOINS  HIS  FAMILY — ORDERED  TO  CHARLESTON — NULLIFICATION — 

INCIDENTS — PEACE  RESTORED, 233 

CHAPTER  XX. 

TACTICS — GENERAL   REGULATIONS — FLORIDA  WAR — CREEK  WAR — 

JACKSON'S  WAR  UPON  SCOTT — COURT  OF  INQUIRY,  .        .        /^258 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

HONORS  TENDERED — BIDDLE  FAMILY — SPEECH  OF  R.  BIDDLE,  M.  C., 

VINDICATING  SCOTT — JACKSON'S  MARTIAL  LAW — His  DEATH,  .     275 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

PRESIDENT  VAN  BUREN — FINE  TEMPER — CANADIAN  AGITATIONS — 
BURNING  OF  THE  CAROLINE — SCOTT  SENT  TO  THE  FRONTIER — 
THE  TURMOIL  QUIETED — SCOTT  SENT  TO  REMOTE  THE  CHERO- 
KEES, 301 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SCOTT  ORDERED  BACK  TO  BRITISH  FRONTIERS — TURMOIL  RENEWED 

— MAINE  BOUNDARY, 331 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

POLITICS  —  GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  —  STOPS  UNLAWFUL  PUNISHMENTS  — 
ATTEMPTS  TO  ABOLISH  HIS  RANK  AND  TO  REDUCE  HIS  PAY — 
MR.  ADAMS  AND  MR.  C.  J.  INGERSOLL, 355 


Contents.  vii 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

PAGE 

LETTER  ON   SLAVERY  —  TRACTS   ON    PEACE    AND   WAR  —  MR.    POLK 

PRESIDENT,       ..........     370 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
WAR  WITH  MEXICO  —  GENERAL  TAYLOR,  ......     38  J 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

SCOTT    ORDERED  TO   MEXICO  —  VISITS   CAMARGO  —  RE-EMBARKS   FOR 

VERA  CRUZ,    .         .        .        ,        .        .        .         .        .         .397 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


SIEGE  AND  CAPTURE  OF  VERA  CRUZ  AND  THE  CASTLE  OF  SAN  JUAN 
DE  ULLOA,       .        .        ;  .        .        .        .  .   -   .        . 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 


BATTLE  OF  CERRO  GORDO,  JALAPA,  PEROTE  AND  PUEBLA  —  HALTS  — 

VISIT  TO  CHOLULA,  ........     480 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

ADVANCE  ON  THE  CAPITAL  —  HALT  AT  AYOTLA  —  RECONNAISSANCES  — 

SAN  AUGUSTIN  —  CONTRERAS,     .......     45!) 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 


VICTORIES  OF  CONTRERAS — SAN  ANTONIO — CHURUBUSCO,          .        .(   477 


viii  Contents. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

PAGH 

AJRMISTICE  —  NEGOTIATIONS  —  HOSTILITIES  RENEWED  —  BATTLE   OF 

MOLINOS  DEL  REY — CAPTURE  OF  CHAPDLTEPEC  AND  MEXICO,    .     603 

CHAPTER  XXXIH. 

BRILLIANT  ALLUSION  TO  THE  CAMPAIGN — RETALIATORY  MEASURES 
— MARTIAL  LAW — SAFEGUARDS — PROCLAMATION — DEFENCE  OF 
PUEBLA, 638 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

QUESTION   OF   FREE    QUARTERS — SYSTEM   OF   FINANCE — SPREAD   OF 

THE  TROOPS, 550 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

SUPPRESSION  OF  OUTLAWS — PEACE  COMMISSIONER — TREATY  SIGNED 

— MEXICAN  OVERTURES — COURT  OF  INQUIRY,   .         .         .        .574 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

RECEPTIONS  AT  NEW  YORK  AND  ELIZABETH  —  OTHERS  DECLINED 

BAD  HEALTH — THANKS  OF  CONGRESS,  ETC.,       .        .  535 


INTRODUC  TION. 


THE  English  language  is  singularly  barren  of  auto 
biographies  or  memoirs  by  leading  actors  in  the  public 
events  of  their  times.  Statesmen,  diplomatists,  and 
warriors  on  land  and  water,  who  have  made  or  mould 
ed  the  fortunes  of  England  or  the  United  States,  have 
nearly  all,  in  this  respect,  failed  in  their  duty  to  pos 
terity  and  themselves.  Their  speeches,  state  papers, 
despatches,  reports,  letters,  and  orders  remain,  indeed, 
fragmentary  monuments  of  their  patriotic  deeds ;  but 
the  Republican  Ludlow,  the  Roundhead  Whitelocke, 
Lord  Clarendon,  Bishop  Burnet,  and  Sir  William 
Temple,*  five  contemporaries,  alone,  of  the  Anglo- 

*  Dean  Swift,  the  literary  executor  of  Temple,  cites,  in  the  preface  to 
a  part  of  his  author's  memoirs,  an  absurd  objection  that  had  been  made  to 


x  Introduction. 

Saxon  race,  are  exceptions,  unless  we  add  Swift,  a  sixth 
contemporary.  This  friend  and  counsellor  of  St.  John 
and  Harley,  brought  them  into  power  (and,  according 
to  Dr.  Johnson,  dictated  public  opinion  to  England), 
mainly  by  a  pamphlet — The  Conduct  of  the  Allies — 
that  broke  down  the  Godolphin  ministry,  supported 
by  that  eminent  man,  Lord  Somers,  and  the  wonderful 
series  of  Marlborough's  victories.  The  masterly  narra 
tive — The  Last  Four  Years  of  Queen  Anne,  seems  to 
complete  Swift's  claim  to  a  place  in  the  small  category 
of  makers  and  writers  of  history.* 

another  part,  earlier  published,  viz. :  that  the  "  author  speaks  too  much 
of  himself,"  and  replies :  "  I  believe  those  who  make  [this]  criticism  do 
not  well  consider  the  nature  of  memoirs.  'Tis  to  the  French  (if  I  mistake 
not)  we  chiefly  owe  that  manner  of  writing,  and  Sir  W.  T.  is  not  only 
the  first,  but,  I  believe,  the  only  Englishman  (at  least  of  any  consequence) 
who  has  ever  attempted  it.  The  best  French  memoirs  are  writ  by  such 
persons  as  were  principal  actors  in  those  transactions  they  pretend  to  re 
late,  whether  of  wars  or  negotiations.  Those  of  Sir  W.  T.  are  of  the  same 
nature."  Hence  the  necessity  of  naming  himself  at  every  turn — otherwise 
his  narrative  would  have  been  like  Shakspeare's  Prince  of  Denmark — 
the  part  of  Hamlet  left  out ! 

*  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes  has,  merely  to 
illustrate  the  uudesirableness  of  old  age,  hitched  in  a  couplet  the  great 
•master  of  the  sword  and  master  of  the  pen  mentioned  in  the  text : 

"  From  Marlborough's  eyes  the  streams  of  dotage  flow, 
And  Swift  expires  a  driv'ler  and  a  show." 


Introduction.  xi 

It  was  otherwise  with  very  many  eminent  men 
of  antiquity.  Moses  and  Joshua,  among  the  sacred 
writers,  belonged  to  the  category  of  great  public  lead 
ers.  Xenophon  saved  the  ten  thousand  Greeks  who 
were  in  the  expedition  of  Cyrus,  and  left  us  a  most 
graceful  narrative  of  his  services.  Cato,  the  censor, 
drew  up  the  history  of  the  first  and  second  Punic  wars, 
in  which  he  served.  Sylla,  who  passed  through  un 
paralleled  scenes  of  blood  and  horror,  found  time  to 
write  twenty-two  Books  of  Commentaries ',  and  those 
of  Caesar,  having  reached  the  art  of  printing,  cannot 
now  fail  to  live  forever.  Polybius,  too,  was  an  actor 
in  many  of  the  scenes  we  have  from  his  historic  pen. 
Coming  down  to  modern  times,  France  and  Germany 
abound  in  autobiographies  and  memoirs  (pour  servir  a 
Vhistoire)  from  the  hands  of  the  makers  of  history — 
Sully,  De  Thou,  De  Eetz,  St.  Simon,  Yillars,  Freder 
ick  the  Great,  the  two  Segurs  (father  and  son),  Gohier, 
Napoleon,  Suchet,  Savary,  St.  Cyr,  Chateaubriand, 
Lamartine,  Talleyrand,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

If,  however,  such  writers  had  the  great  advantage 
of  a  personal  knowledge  of  their  respective  subjects, 
they  were,  on  the  other  hand,  beset,  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end,  with  some  counterbalancing  diflicul- 


xii  Introduction. 

ties:  1.  Tlie  danger  of  self-neglect,  in  the  way  of  just 
praise  or  of  just  reproach,  and  2.  Unworthy  partiali 
ties  and  jealousies  for  or  against  their  co-actors. 

"I  place  my  name,"  says  Cardinal  de  E-etz  to  a 
friend,  "  at  the  head  of  this  work  [Memoirs  of  his  own 
times],  in  order  to  lay  myself  under  the  strongest  obli 
gation  not  to  diminish  and  not  ^o  magnify  the  truth  in 
anything.  Yain-glory  and  false  delicacy  are  the  two 
rocks  which  the  greater  number  of  those  who  have 
written  their  own  lives,  have  not  been  able  to  avoid. 
President  de  Thou,  in  the  last  generation,  steered  clear 
between  them,  and,  among  the  ancients,  Csesar  made 
no  miscarriage.  You,  without  doubt,  will  do  me  the 
justice  to  believe  that  I  would  not  allege  those  great 
names,  on  an  occasion  personal  to  myself,  if  sincerity 
were  not  the  sole  virtue  in  which  we  are  permitted — 
nay  commanded — to  equal  the  most  illustrious  exam 
ples." 

In  Dr.  Middleton's  Life  of  Cicero,  the  embarrass 
ments  of  that  great  orator  and  writer,  on  a  similar 
occasion,  are  thus  presented : 

"In  this  year,  also,  Cicero  wrote  that  celebrated 
letter  *  to  Lucceius,  in  which  he  presses  him  to  attempt 

*  Epis.  Fam.  12. 


Introduction.  xiii 

the  history  of  his  transactions.  Lncceius  was  a  man 
of  eminent  learning  and  abilities,  and  had  just  finished 
the  history  of  the  Italic  and  Marian  civil  wars ;  with 
intent  to  carry  it  down  through  his  own  times,  and,  in 
the  general  relation,  to  include,  as  he  had  promised,  a 
particular  account  of  Cicero's  acts ;  but  Cicero,  who 
was  pleased  with  his  style  and  manner  of  writing, 
labors  to  engage  him,  in  this  letter,  to  postpone  the 
design  of  his  continued  history,  and  enter  directly  on 
that  separate  period,  from  the  beginning  of  his  consul 
ship  to  his  restoration,  comprehending  Catiline's  con 
spiracy  and  his  own  exile.  He  observes,  'that  this 
short  interval  was  distinguished  with  such  a  variety  of 
incidents,  and  unexpected  turns  of  fortune,  as  furnished 
the  happiest  materials  both  to  the  skill  of  the  writer 
and  the  entertainment  of  the  reader;  that  when  an 
author's  attention  was  confined  to  a  single  and  select 
subject,  he  was  more  capable  of  adorning  it  and  dis 
playing  his  talents,  than  in  the  wide  and  diffusive  field 
of  general  history.  But  if  he  did  not  think  the  facts 
themselves  worth  the  pains  of  adorning,  that  he  would 
yet  allow  so  much  to  friendship,  to  affection,  and  even 
to  that  favor  which  he  had  so  laudably  disclaimed  in 
his  prefaces,  as  not  to  confine  himself  scrupulously  to 


XIY  Introduction. 

the  strict  laws  of  history  and  the  rules  of  truth.  That, 
if  he  would  undertake  it,  he  would  supply  him  with 
some  rough  memoirs,  or  commentaries,  for  the  founda 
tion  of  his  work;  if  not,  that  he  himself  should  be 
forced  to  do  what  many  had  done  before  him — write 
his  own  life — a  task  liable  to  many  exceptions  and 
difficulties  ;  where  a  man  would  necessarily  be  re 
strained  by  modesty,  on  the  one  hand,  or  partiality,  on 
the  other,  either  from  blaming  or  praising  himself  so 
much  as  he  deserved.3  r 

Pliny,  the  younger,  another  accomplished  orator 
and  writer — unwilling  to  take  the  risk  of  portraying 
himself — also,  but  in  terms  rather  less  unmanly,  in 
voked  the  historic  aid  of  a  friend. 

In  a  letter  *  to  Tacitus,  he  says :  "  I  strongly  pre 
sage  (and  I  am  persuaded  I  shall  not  be  deceived)  that 
your  histories  will  be  immortal.  I  ingenuously  own, 
therefore,  I  so  much  the  more  earnestly  wish  to  find  a 
place  in  them.  If  we  are  generally  careful  to  have  our 
persons  represented  by  the  best  artists,  ought  we  not 
to  desire  that  our  actions  may  be  related  and  cele 
brated  by  an  author  of  your  distinguished  abilities? 
In  view  of  this,  I  acquaint  you  with  the  following 

*  Letter  33,  Book  vii. 


Introduction.  xv 

affair,  which,  though  it  cannot  have  escaped  your  at 
tention,  as  it  is  mentioned  in  the  journals  of  the  public, 
still  I  acquaint  you  with  it,  that  you  may  be  the  more 
sensible  how  agreeable  it  will  be  to  me,  that  this  action, 
greatly  heightened  by  the  hazard  which  attended  it, 
should  receive  an  additional  lustre  from  the  testimony 
of  so  bright  a  genius."  (Pliny  here  gives  some  rough 
notes  of  the  public  transaction  in  question,  with  a 
speech  of  his  which  settled  the  matter,  and  thus  pro 
ceeds:)  "This  short  speech  was  extremely  well  re 
ceived  by  those  who  were  present;  as  it  soon  after 
ward  got  abroad  and  was  mentioned  by  everybody 
with  general  applause.  The  late  emperor,  Nerva 
(who,  though  at  that  time  in  a  private  station,  yet  in 
terested  himself  in  every  meritorious  action  which  con 
cerned  the  public),  wrote  an  admirable  letter  to  me 
upon  the  occasion,  wherein  he  not  only  congratulated 
me,  but  the  age,  which  had  produced  an  example  so 
much  in  the  spirit  (as  he  was  pleased  to  call  it)  of 
better  days.  But,  whatever  the  fact  be,  it  is  in  your 
power  to  heighten  and  spread  the  lustre  of  it :  though 
far  am  I  from  desiring  you  would,  in  the  least,  exceed 
the  bounds  of  reality.  History  ought  to  be  guided  by 
strict  truth ;  and  worthy  actions  require  nothing  more. 


xvi  Introduction. 

"  Happy  I  deem  those  to  be  whom  the  gods  have 
distinguished  with  the  abilities  either  of  performing 
such  actions  as  are  worthy  of  being  related,  or  of  re 
lating  them  in  a  manner  worthy  of  being  read;  but 
doubly  happy  are  they  who  are  blessed  with  both  of 
those  uncommon  endowments."  —  PuNy  (to  Tacitus\ 
Book  vi.,  Letter  16. 

In  general  terms,  applicable  to  all  contemporary 
history  and  biography,  but,  mainly,  with  special  refer 
ence  to  men  of  letters,  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of 
Addison,  finely  touches  the  same  difficulties : 

"The  necessity  of  complying  with  times,  and  of 
sparing  persons,  is  the  great  impediment  of  biography. 
History  may  be  formed  from  permanent  monuments 
and  records;  but  lives  can  only  be  written  from  per 
sonal  knowledge,  which  is  growing  every  day  less,  and 
in  a  short  time  is  lost  forever.  What  is  known  can 
seldom  be  immediately  told;  and  when  it  might  be 
told,  it  is  no  longer  known.  The  delicate  features  of 
the  mind,  the  nice  discriminations  of  character,  and 
the  minute  peculiarities  of  conduct,  are  soon  obliter 
ated;  and  it  is  surely  better  that  caprice,  obstinacy, 
frolic,  and  folly,  however  they  might  delight  in  the 
description,  should  be  silently  forgotten,  than  that,  by 


Introduction.  xvii 

wanton  merriment  and  unseasonable  detection,  a  pang 
slioidd  be  given  to  a  widow,  a  daughter,  a  brother,  or 
a  friend.  As  the  process  of  these  narratives  is  now 
bringing  me  among  my  contemporaries,  I  begin  to  feel 
myself  '  walking  upon  ashes  under  which  the  fire  is  not 
yet  extinguished,'  and  coming  to  the  time  of  which  it 
will  be  proper  rather  to  say  '  nothing  that  is  false,  than 
all  that  is  true.'  "  * 

In  the  Edinburgh  Review,  January,  1850,  on  Lam- 
artine's  History  of  the  French  Revolution  of  1848 — 
when  a  Government  was  extemporized,  with  the  au 
thor  at  its  head — there  is  a  passage  so  much  to  my 
purpose  that  I  cannot  resist  placing  it  in  this  intro 
duction : 

"  The  most  valuable  materials  for  the  history  ol 
great  events  are  undoubtedly  afforded  by  the  auto 
biographies  of  those  who  took  a  distinguished  part 
in  them.  They  perceived  the  importance  of  details 
which  a  bystander  would  have  neglected.  They  knew 
what  was  proposed  and  what  was  decided  at  secret 

*  In  these  reserves,  Johnson  evidently  had  in  view  mere  authors,  not 
public  functionaries — persons  taking  upon  themselves  high  offices,  and, 
therefore,  amenable  to  historic  exposure  and  censure  for  great  personal 
defects  and  miscarriages. 


xviii  Introduction. 

councils;  they  can  tell  us  what  they  themselves  did, 
and,  what  is  often  very  different,  what  they  intended. 
Such  narratives,  however,  are  comparatively  rare :  And 
those  which  we  possess  have  generally  been  written 
long  after  the  events  —  when  the  recollections  of  the 
narrator  had  lost  their  first  vividness;  while  their 
publication  is  often  delayed  still  longer,  until  the  con 
temporaries  of  the  writer  have  passed  away, — perhaps 
until  he  has  passed  away  himself, — so  that  much  of  the 
restraint,  which  the  liability  to  denial  and  exposure 
would  have  imposed  on  his  inventions  or  on  his  sup 
pressions,  has  been  removed.  The  memoirs  of  M.  de 
Talleyrand,  for  example — which  we  are  only  to  have 
twenty  years  hence,  will  not  be  received  with  the  con 
fidence  which  they  would  have  deserved  if  they  had 
been  published  in  his  lifetime,  or  even  immediately 
after  his  death :  And  one  of  the  great  merits  of  M.  de 
Lamartine's  work  is  its  freedom  from  these  objections. 
It  must  have  been  written  within  a  few  months  of  the 
events  which  it  relates ;  and  is  published  while  almost 
every  other  actor  in  that  great  drama  can  protest 
against  its  statements  or  supply  its  omissions.  On 
the  other  hand,  of  course,  this  proximity  has  its  incon 
veniences.  M.  de  Lamartine  cannot  feel  as  impartial- 


Introduction. 


Xli 


Ij  as  if  his  work  had  treated  of  times  long  since  passed ; 
or  speak  as  boldly  as  if  it  had  been  intended  to  be  post 
humous.  In  following  the  course  of  this  narrative,  we 
accordingly  often  wish  for  names  where  we  find  mere 
designations,  and  for  details  where  we  find  only  gen 
eral  statements.  Much  is  obviously  concealed  from  us 
which  it  would  have  been  useful  to  know,  but  danger 
ous  to  tell.  Undeserved  praise,  too,  appears  to  be  fre 
quently  awarded ;  and  deserved  blame  to  be  still  more 
frequently  withheld.  These  objections,  however,  are 
far  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  freshness  and 
vivacity  of  the  narrative:  a  freshness  and  vivacity 
which  even  as  great  a  poet  as  M.  de  Lamartine  could 
not  have  given  to  it,  if  he  had  written  it  ten  years 
later." 

In  all  narratives,  the  art  of  selecting,  rejecting,  and 
grouping  incidents,  is  one  of  difficult  attainment,  and 
if  not  attained,  length,  tediousness,  and  confusion  are 
inevitable.  Truth  may  be  lost  under  a  cloud  of  details 
and  multiplicity  of  words,  as  well  as  by  material  sup 
pressions  and  inventions.  Indeed,  the  size  of  a  book, 
on  any  given  subject,  will  always  be  in  the  inverse 
ratio  of  the  talent  and  the  pains  bestowed  upon  it.  In 
a  brillianf  essay  on  history  in  general — Edinburgh 


xx  Introduction. 

Review,  May,  1828  * — there  are  some  fine  passages  on 
this  subject.  I  can  extract  but  one :  "  If  history  were 
written  thus  [giving,  without  judicious  selection,  all 
that  was  done  and  said]  the  Bodleian  library  would 
not  contain  the  transactions  of  a  week.  What  is  told 
in  the  fullest  and  most  accurate  annals,  bears  an  infi 
nitely  small  proportion  to  what  is  suppressed.  The 
difference  between  the  copious  work  of  Clarendon  and 
the  account  of  the  civil  wars  in  the  abridgment  of 
Goldsmith,  vanishes,  when  compared  with  the  immense 
mass  of  facts  respecting  which  both  are  equally  silent." 

I  have  drawn  up  this  chart — marked  with  great 
names  and  solemn  monitions — to  present  just  charac 
teristics  of  autobiography  for  my  own  guidance — per 
haps,  condemnation,  in  case  of  failure — in  the  execu 
tion  of  the  task  (already  too  long  delayed)  indicated  in 
the  title. 

Napoleon,  on  his  abdication,  turned  to  the  wrecks 
of  his  old  battalions  about  him,  and  said :  "  I  will 
write  the  history  of  our  campaigns."  Yindictively  re 
called  from  Mexico,  but  not  till  the  enemy  had  been 
crushed  and  a  peace  dictated,  Napoleon's  declaration 

*  By  Macaulay,  but  omitted,  with  others,  in  his  edition  of  his  Essays, 
London,  1843. 


Introduction.  xxi 

and  memoirs  recurred  to  me,  and  I  resolved,  in  my 
humble  sphere,  to  write  also.  But  circumstances  (first 
bad  health  and  next  incessant  occupations  at  Washing 
ton,  etc.)  have,  till  now,  suspended  my  purpose.  In 
the  meantime  I  have  carefully  abstained  from  reading 
a  line  published  on  the  Mexican  campaign,  lest  I  might 
be  provoked  to  seize  the  pen  before  having  sufficient 
strength  or  leisure  for  literary  composition. 

It  will  be  seen  that  I  aspire  not  to  the  dignity  of  a 
historian,  but  simply  offer  contemporary  memoirs  for 
the  use  of  some  future  Prescott  or  Macaulay;  and 
making  no  pretension  to  the  gifts  and  graces  of  any 
of  the  great  writers  I  have  cited,  I  feel  myself,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  be  superior  to  a  few  of  them,  in  impar 
tiality,  candor,  and  firmness. 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  build  up  a  big  book — 
always  an  evil.  It  is  only  necessary  to  pile  line  upon 
line,  document  on  document,  Pelion  on  Ossa — and 
bulk  is  obtained.  An  author's  difficulties,  both  of 
head  and  hand,  as  intimated  above,  lie  in  judicious 
culling  and  arranging — the  compression  of  materials. 
My  labors  are  now  to  be  commenced,  and  in  trying  to 
fill  the  outline  I  have  sketched,  I  hope  not  to  lose  my 
self  in  verbosity,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  fail  to  give  neces- 


XX11 


Introduction. 


sary  development  to  interesting  events  on  the  other. 
As  Macaulay  has  remarked,  the  Reverend  Dr.  ]Sf  ares, 
professor  of  modern  history  in  the  university  of  Oxford, 
has  attained  the  full  Brobdignagian  dimensions  in  the 
Life  of  Lord  Burleigh,  Elizabeth's  treasurer :  two  thou 
sand  closely  printed  quarto  pages,  fifteen  hundred 
inches  in  cubic  measure,  and  sixty  pounds  avoirdu 
pois  weight!  Montesquieu's  Lettres  Persons,  the 
smallest  of  books  found  in  libraries,  is,  perhaps,  the 
more  perfect  by  reason  of  its  smallness.  Abounding 
in  wit,  humor,  and  satire,  as  well  as  in  profound  views 
of  morality  and  politics,  it,  and  Nares's  work,  though 
in  different  paths,  are  opposite  illustrations  of  the  apo 
thegm  already  quoted. 

Undertaking  an  humbler  subject,  though  one  of 
numerous  incidents,  I  shall  attempt  the  juste  milieu 
attained  by  Yoltaire  in  the  Life  of  Charles  XII.  of 
Sweden;  by  Southey  in  the  Life  of  Nelson,  and  by 
Bell  in  the  Life  of  Canning.  To  be  considered  an 
approach  to  such  models  in  the  single  power  of  com 
pression,  would  satisfy  the  ambition  of  my  unpractised 

hand. 

WINFIELD   SCOTT. 

WEST  POINT,  N.  Y.,  July  6,  1863. 


MEMOIRS,     ETC. 


OHAPTEE    I. 

% 

BIRTH PARENTAGE SCHOOLS COLLEGE. 

ACCORDING  to  the  family  Bible,  I  was  born  June 
13,  1786,  on  the  farm  which  I  inherited,  some  four 
teen  miles  from  Petersburg,  Yirginia.  My  parents, 
"William  Scott  and  Ann  Mason,  both  natives  of  the 
same  neighborhood,  intermarried  in  1780.  "William's 
father,  a  Scotchman,  of  the  clan  Buccleuch,  was  the 
younger  son  of  a  small  landed  proprietor,  and  taking 
part  with  the  Pretender,  escaped  from  the  field  of 
Culloden  (1746)  to  Bristol,  whence,  by  the  aid  of  a 
merchant  and  kinsman,  he  was  smuggled  on  board  of 
1 


2  Parentage. 

a  ship  bound  to  Yirginia,  and  buried  himself  in  that 
colony  before  1747,  the  date  of  the  general  amnesty. 

The  fugitive  crossed  the  Atlantic  with  nothing  but 
a  small  purse  borrowed  from  his  Bristol  cousin,  and  a 
good  stock  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  Scotch  jurisprudence. 
He  had  now  to  study  a  new  code — the  English  com 
mon  law ;  but  soon  attained  considerable  eminence  at 
the  bar ;  married  late,  and,  in  a  year  or  two,  died. 

In  my  sixth  year,  I  lost  my  father — a  gallant  lieu 
tenant  and  captain  in  the  Revolutionary  army,  and 
a  successful  farmer.  Happily,  my  dear  mother  was 
spared  to  me  eleven  years  longer.  And  if,  in  my  now 
protracted  career,  I  have  achieved  anything  worthy  of 
being  written ;  anything  that  my  countrymen  are  like 
ly  to  honor  in  the  next  century — it  is  from  the  lessons 
of  that  admirable  parent  that  I  derived  the  inspira 
tion.*  Perhaps  filial  piety  may  be  excused  for  adding 

*  I  still  often  recall,  with  pain,  that  I  once  disobeyed  my  mother — a 
pain  mitigated,  however,  by  the  remembrance  of  the  profitable  lesson  that 
ensued.  Being,  on  a  Sunday  morning,  in  my  seventh  year,  ordered  to  get 
ready  for  church,  I,  in  a  freak,  ran  off  and  tried  to  hide  myself.  Pursued 
and  brought  back  by  a  servant,  a  switch  was  sent  for.  Seeing  that  con 
dign  punishment  was  imminent,  and  that  the  instrument  was  a  shoot  torn 
from  a  Lombardy  poplar,  the  culprit  luckily  quoted  this  verse  from  St 
Matthew:  "Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  [should]  be 


Ancestral  Kindred.  3 

a  few  sentences  more  on  the  parents  and  collateral 
kindred  of  this  lady — the  daughter  of  Daniel  Mason 
and  Elizabeth  his  wife,  the  only  child  of  John  Win- 
field,  probably  the  wealthiest  man  in  the  colony.  The 
latter  survived  his  daughter,  and  dying  intestate,  about 
1TT4,  WinfiM  Mason,  the  brother  of  Mrs.  Ann  Scott, 
took,  by  descent,  as  the  law  then  stood  in  favor  of  the 
eldest  male  heir,  the  whole  of  the  landed  estate  of  the 
grandfather — besides  sharing  equally  in  the  personal 
property  with  his  two  sisters.  I,  his  namesake,  stood 
nearly  from  my  birth,  the  principal  devisee,  in  an  un- 
cancelled  will  that  I  read  after  my  uncle's  death,  of 
nearly  the  whole  of  that  large  estate;  but  marriage 
and  the  birth  of  a  child,  very  properly,  abrogate  a 
testament  of  a  prior  date  ;  and  Winfield  Mason, 
though  he  married  very  late  in  life,  left  several  chil 
dren.  His  wife  was  the  daughter  of  a  near  neighbor 
and  very  remarkable  man — Dr.  Greenway,  who  well 
deserves  a  separate  memoir  from  an  abler  pen ;  but  of 


hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire."  The  quotation  was  from  the  regular 
lesson  I  had  read  to  my  mother  a  short  time  before.  The  rod  was  spared ; 
but  the  pious  mother  seized  the  occasion  to  make  her  son  comprehend 
that,  beginning  with  the  sin  of  disobedience,  I,  myself,  might  soon  become 
a  tree  fit  to  be  hewn  down,  etc. 


4:  Ancestral  Kindred. 

whom  it  is  not  known  that  even  the  briefest  sketch 
has  ever  been  published,  although  he  has  now  been 
dead  some  seventy  years.*  His  descendants  being 
without  ambition  or  particular  distinction,  and  early 
dispersed,  the  sources  of  a  full  biography  in  this  case 
are,  probably,  forever  lost.  A  rescue  from  entire  ob 
livion  is,  however,  here  attempted  upon  a  boyish  mem 
ory  that  has  rarely  failed;  for  I  perfectly  recall  the 
white  head  and  florid  face  of  the  doctor  as  late  as  1793, 
when  he  must  have  been  fourscore  and  ten,  and  in 
whose  library,  in  the  time  of  the  son,  I  spent  many 
profitable  hours.  From  the  family  and  neighborhood 
traditions,  annotations  on  books,  and  unpublished 
writings — it,  however,  may  be  safely  said  that  James 
Greenway  was  born  just  within  the  English  line,  on 
the  borders  of  Scotland,  and  inherited  his  father's  trade 
— that  of  a  weaver.  .  Genius,  however,  stimulated  by 
ambition,  is  difficult  to  suppress.  The  weaver  boy,  in 
a  free  school,  over  the  border,  contrived  to  make  him 
self  acquainted  with  the  Greek  grammar,  and  to  be 
come  a  better  Latin  scholar— languages  which,  with 
French  and  Italian,  he  cultivated,  laboriously,  through 

*  He  may  be  noticed  in  Barton's  Elements  of  Botany,  and  perhaps  by 
European  savans. 


Ancestral  Kvndred.  5 

the  greater  part  of  his  long  life,  as  was  evident  from 
notes  on  his  Homer,  Horace,  Pliny  the  naturalist, 
Rabelais,  Dante,  etc.,  etc. — all  originals.  He  early 
migrated  to  Yirginia,  where  he  wrought  at  his  humble 
craft  while  preparing  for  a  license  to  practise  medicine, 
by  which,  combined  with  extensive  milling  operations, 
he  amassed  an  ample  fortune.  His  professional  repu 
tation  brought  him  patients  from  a  wide  circumference, 
but,  as  he  became  rich,  he  gradually  withdrew  from 
the  practice  of  medicine,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the 
culture  of  polite  literature  and  natural  history,  par 
ticularly  botany,  and  left  a  hortus  siccus  of  some  forty 
folio  volumes,  in  which  all  the  more  interesting  plants, 
etc.,  of  Yirginia  and  North  Carolina,  were  described  in 
classical  English  and  Latin.  His  success,  in  that  de 
partment  and  others  of  science,  procured  for  him 
honorary  memberships  in  several  European  Societies, 
and  an  extensive  correspondence  with  Linnaeus,  which, 
with  a  presented  portrait  of  the  great  Swedish  natural 
ist,  were  long  preserved  in  the  family  library.  Confi 
dent  memory,  at  this  distance  of  time  and  place,  can 
add  only  a  few  other  particulars  to  illustrate  the  doc 
tor's  great  versatility  of  parts  and  pride  in  founding  a 
family. 


6  School  Days. 

Living  some  twenty-odd  miles  from  the  nearest 
market  town  (Petersburg),  no  musical  teacher  could  be 
hired  by  him.  Hence,  when  the  first  daughter  ap 
proached  her  teens,  the  doctor,  after  possessing  himself 
of  a  guitar  and  harpsichord  (pianos  were  yet  unknown) 
had  first  to  instruct  himself  in  the  use  of  their  strings, 
which  was  the  less  difficult  as  he  was,  earlier,  a  scien 
tific  flutist  and  violinist;  next  he  had  to  impart  the 
same  lesson  to  that  daughter,  laying  her  under  the  in 
junction  not  to  marry  until  she  had  done  as  much  for 
the  next  sister.  In  this  way  the  whole  of  a  numerous 
family  were  made  highly  musical — the  father  being  the 
instructor  also  of  the  only  son  in  the  use  of  the  flute 
and  violin. 

My  school  and  college  days  were  marked  by  no  ex 
traordinary  success  and  no  particular  failure.  There 
was  no  want  of  apprehension ;  but  the  charms  of  idle 
ness  or  pleasure  often  prevailed  over  the  pride  of 
acquisition.  Still,  if  I  were  not  always  the  leader  of 
classes,  I  was  never  far  behind,  and,  as  a  summary  of 
iny  whole  life,  it  may  be  added,  that  a  certain  love  of 
letters — sometimes  amounting  to  a  passion — has  kept 
my  mind  in  constant  health  and  in  the  way  of  progress. 
One  of  my  earlier  schoolmasters— James  Hargrave— a 


School  Days.  7 

Quaker,  labored  hard  to  curb  my  passions  and  to  mould 
my  character  to  usefulness  and  virtue.  This  was  in  my 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  years,  at  boarding  school.  It 
was  in  defence  of  this  excellent  man,  of  very  small 
stature,  that  the  pupil  first  discovered,  some  six  years 
later,  that  he  already  possessed  a  great  power  of  arm ; 
for,  turning  a  corner,  at  a  public  gathering,  he  found 
the  non-combatant,  on  a  charge  of  running  (as  county 
land  surveyor)  a  false  dividing  line,  undergoing  a  se 
vere  handling  by  a  half-drunken  bully.  A  single  blow 
brought  him  to  the  ground,  stunned,  and  nearly  sobered. 
Being  allowed  to  rise,  he  advanced  upon  his  assailant. 
The  Quaker,  true  to  his  principles,  jumped  between, 
and  finding  his  friend  the  more  belligerent  party, 
seized  and  so  encumbered  him,  that  the  bully  partially 
hit  him  several  times,  when,  by  a  sudden  movement, 
the  Quaker  was  thrown  off  and  the  bully  again  floored. 
The  noise  caused  a  rush  of  the  crowd  to  the  scene, 
where  learning  the  original  cowardly  attack,  it  cost 
the  Quaker  and  his  pupil  their  greatest  effort  to  save 
the  bully  from  further  punishment  and  perhaps  death.* 

*  On  visiting  home  after  the  War  of  1812-'15,  I  met  my  friend,  Har- 
grave,  at  the  scene  of  the  above  affray.  The  greeting,  on  one  side,  was 
quakerist :  "  Friend  Winfield,  I  always  told  thee  not  to  fight ;  but  as  thou 
wouldst  fight,  I  am  glad  that  thou  were'nt  beaten." 


8  School  Days. 

Another  and  a  more  distinguished  teacher — James 
Ogilvie,  a  Scotchman,  rich  in  physical  and  intellectual 
gifts — is  entitled  to  notice  at  the  hands  of  a  pupil. 

Mr.  Ogilvie  professed  to  have  a  special  call  to  the 
instruction  of  youth,  and  always  urged  upon  his  pupils 
to  give  two  or  three  years  each  to  the  same  pursuit  on 
the  reciprocal  obligation  of  imparting  a  great  benefit, 
and  for  the  further  reason  that  no  one  so  thoroughly 
masters  a  subject  as  he  who  obliges  himself  to  teach  it 
methodically. 

His  first  high  school  was  on  the  Eappahannock ; 
the  last  in  Richmond.  I  was  a  year  with  him  in  the 
latter,  just  before  entering  college.  Here  were  taught, 
besides  the  ancient  classics,  rhetoric,  Scotch  meta 
physics,  logic,  mathematics,  and  political  economy — 
several  of  them  by  lecture.  Most  of  the  pupils  were 
approaching  manhood ;  but  as  too  much  was  attempted 
within  a  limited  time,  by  republican  short  cuts  to 
knowledge,  it  is  feared  that  all  who  entered  sciolists, 
left  the  school  without  the  ballast  of  learning. 

Mr.  O.,  always  eccentric,  being  an  opium  eater, 
often  exhibited,  before  the  doses  became  too  frequent, 
phases  of  preternatural  brightness.  His  last  few  years 
in  America,  before  returning  home  to  claim  a  peerage, 


College  Life.  9 

were  spent  as  an  itinerant  lecturer.  Though  a  wel 
come  guest  everywhere,  he  took  up  collections  to 
defray  travelling  expenses.  He  thus  declaimed,  from 
a  carefully  prepared  rostrum,  several  brilliant  compo 
sitions  of  his  own,  formed  on  the  model  of  Cicero,  with 
other  illusory  accompaniments — the  dress,  the  gestures, 
the  organ  swell,  and  dying  fall — of  the  great  Roman 
orator.  They  were  magnificent  specimens  of  art ;  only 
the  art  was  too  conspicuous. 

The  student,  now  waxing  fast  into  manhood,  passed, 
in  1805,  to  William  and  Mary  College,  where,  instead 
of  relying  on  the  superficialities  of  his  high  schools,  he 
should  have  entered  years  before,  and  have  worked  his 
way  regularly  through.  This  blunder  has  been  felt  all 
his  life.  The  branches  of  knowledge  selected  for  his 
new  studies  were  chemistry,  natural  and  experimental 
philosophy,  and  the  common  law.  These  he  pursued 
with  some  eagerness  and  success ;  as  also  civil  and  in 
ternational  law — the  bar  being  looked  to  as  a  profes 
sion,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  usual  road  to  political 
advancement. 

This  was  the  spring  tide  of  infidelity  in  many  parts 
of  Europe  and  America.  At  school  and  college,  most 

bright  boys,  of  that  day,  affected  to  regard  religion  as 
l* 


10  College  Life. 

base  superstition,  or  gross  hypocrisy — such  was  the 
fashion.  Bishop  Madison,  President  of  William  and 
Mary  College,  contributed  not  a  little,  within  his  sphere, 
by  injudicious  management,  to  the  prevalent  evil.  It 
was  his  pious  care  to  denounce  to  the  new  comers  cer 
tain  writings  of  Hume,  Yoltaire,  Godwin,  Helvetius, 
etc.,  etc.,  then  generally  in  the  hands  of  seniors.  These 
writings  the  good  bishop  represented  as  sirens,  made 
perfectly  seductive  by  the  charms  of  rhetoric.  Curi 
osity  was  thus  excited.  Each  green  youth  became  im 
patient  to  try  his  strength  with  so  much  fascination; 
to  taste  the  forbidden  fruit,  and,  if  necessary,  to  buy 
knowledge  at  wliatever  cost. 


CHAPTER    II. 

LAW    STUDIES THE   BAK TRIAL    OF    BURR. 

BEING  my  own  master,  since  the  death  of  my  mother, 
I  next  transferred  myself,  in  my  nineteenth  year,  from 
college  to  the  law  office,  in  Petersburg,  of  David  Rob 
inson,  Esquire,  a  very  learned  scholar  and  barrister, 
originally  imported  from  Scotland,  as  a  tutor,  by  my 
grandfather.  The  young  man,  born  a  generation  too 
late  to  come  under  the  ferule  of  the  family  pedagogue, 
was  now  affectionately  claimed  as  a  law  pupil  *  by  this 

*  Mr.  Robinson,  in  my  time,  had  but  two  other  students  in  his  office — 
Thomas  Ruffin  and  John  F.  May.  The  first  of  these  and  the  autobiographer 
did  not  chance  to  meet  from  1806  to  1853,  a  period  of  forty-seven  years, 
when  Mr.  R.,  Chief  Justice  of  North  Carolina,  came  to  New  York  as  a  lay 
member  of  the  General  Protestant  Episcopal  Convention.  The  greeting 
between  them  was  boyishly  enthusiastic.  The  chief  justice,  at  the  table 
of  the  soldier,  said :  "  Friend  Scott,  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  of  the 
three  law  students,  in  the  same  office,  in  1805  and  1806 — all  yet  in  good 
preservation — our  friend  May  has  long  been  at  the  head  of  the  bar  in 


12  Burfs  Trial. 

veteran  of  tlie  bar,  who,  living,  down  to  1833,  in  the 
practice  of  all  the  charities  of  life  toward  high  and 
low,  within  his  sphere,  is  likely  to  have  continued  to 
him  a  great  professional  longevity  by  his  able  reports 
of  the  debates  in  the  Virginia  Convention  on  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  the  trial  for  high 
treason  of  ex-Viee-President  Aaron  Burr. 

I  had  just  ridden  my  first  circuit,  as  an  incipient 
man  of  law,  when,  like  a  vast  multitude  of  others,  in 
cluding  the  flower  of  the  land,  I  hastened  up  to  Rich 
mond  to  witness  a  scene  of  the  highest  interest.  Aaron 
Burr,  of  the  city  of  New  York,  a  distinguished  officer 
of  the  Revolution ; — at  the  bar  and  in  politics,  first  the 
rival,  and  then,  in  a  duel,  the  murderer  of  Alexander 
Hamilton ; — an  ex-Yice-President  of  the  United  States, 
and,  before,  an  equal  competitor  with  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  in  many  anxious  ballotings  in  the  House  of  Repre- 

Southern  Virginia ;  I  long  at  the  head  of  the  bench  in  North  Carolina, 
and  you,  the  youngest,  long  at  the  head  of  the  United  States  Army ! '» 
The  last  that  I  saw  of  this  most  excellent  man,  always  highly  conservative, 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Peace  Convention  that  met  in  Washington  in 
the  spring  of  1861.  Had  his  sentiments,  the  same  as  Crittenden's,  pre 
vailed,  we  should  now  (July,  1863)  have  in  the  thirty-four  States  fewer  by 
several  millions  of  widows,  orphans,  cripples,  bankrupts,  and  deep  mourn 
ers  to  sadden  the  land.  Judge  Maj .  fortunately  for  him,  died  before  the 
commencement  of  this  horrid  war. 


Burr's  Trial.  13 

sentatives  for  the  Presidency — was  now  to  be  tried  for 
high  treason,  and,  if  found  guilty,  to  receive  a  traitor's 
doom.  This  was  the  great  central  figure  below  the 
bench.  There  he  stood,  in  the  hands  of  power,  on  the 
brink  of  danger,  as  composed,  as  immovable,  as  one  of 
Canova's  living  marbles.  Party  spirit,  out  of  court, 
had  taken  possession  of  the  case,  the  factions  having 
changed  sides.  It  was  President  Jefferson  who  directed 
and  animated  the  prosecution,  and  hence  every  Repub 
lican  clamored  for  execution.  Of  course,  the  Federalists, 
forgetting  Hamilton  —  the  murdered  Hamilton,  emi 
nently  qualified  to  be  considered  great  among  the 
greatest  of  any  age  or  country — compacted  themselves 
on  the  other  side.  The  counsel  for  the  defence  were 
equal  to  the  great  occasion.  Luther  Martin,  a  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was,  in  himself, 
another  Yiner's  abridgment  of  the  law  in  twenty  folio 
volumes.  The  keen,  the  accomplished  John  Wick- 
ham  was  always  ready  with  learning,  eloquence,  wit, 
logic,  or  sarcasm,  as  the  case  required.  Few  men  ever 
entered  an  arena  so  well  armed.  Benjamin  Botts,  just 
emerging  from  the  provincial  bar,  also  made  his  mark 
at  this  trial.  With  little  gesture,  and  scarce  a  figure 
of  speech — conforming  to  Swift's  notion  of  a  good 


14:  Burr's  Trial. 

style  —  "  proper  words  in  proper  places " — Mr.  B. 
scarcely  stood  second  to  anybody  in  general  power. 
Shrinking  from  no  difficulty,  his  severe  analysis  shat 
tered  and  dissolved  the  most  knarled  subjects,  and 
then,  with  a  driving  logic,  he  sent  home  the  main  point 
in  debate  to  the  conviction  of  all  hearers.  "With  a  fine, 
manly  head,  and  soft  manners  in  private,  there  was, 
when  he  rose  to  speak,  an  imposing  solemnity  on  his 
brow,  and  a  fearful  earnestness  of  look — such  as  more 
recently  distinguished  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  minis 
ter,  Edward  Irving,  in  his  London  Chapel.*  And  yet 
there  was  another  brilliant  star  in  this  forensic  galaxy. 
William  Wirt,  who  in  his  previous  limited  circle  had 
not  been  without  briefs  and  admirers,  now  stood  for 
the  first  time  on  a  stage  worthy  of  his  genius  and  am 
bition.  Appointed  coadjutor  to  Mr.  Hay,  the  United 
States'  District  Attorney,  the  burden  of  the  prosecution 
and  the  defence  of  the  prosecutor  (including  the  Presi 
dent)  became  his  burdens.  The  necessities  of  the  case 
were  incessant  and  great.  In  the  preliminaries  of  the 
trial — in  the  light  skirmishing  of  many  weeks  which 
preceded  the  main  shock  of  battle,  he  held  his  own 

*  Mr.  Botts,  the  most  intrepid  of  men,  perished  at  the  burning  of  the 
Richmond  theatre,  assisting  the  feeble  to  escape,  Christmas  week,  181 1. 


BUTT'S  Trial.  15 

well.  ~N"or  did  lie  fail  in  any  part  of  the  trial,  though 
as  yet  far  from  that  depth  in  the  law  and  mastery  in 
argument  which  so  greatly  distinguished  his  later  ca 
reer.  At  every  turn  and  effort,  however,  he  caused 
himself  to  be  felt  and  respected ;  but  at  certain  times, 
when  it  was  required  to  call  back  fugitive  attention,  in 
order  to  another  march  in  the  argument,  Mr.  Wirt 
could  soar,  for  the  moment,  high  above  his  subject, 
and  by  bursts  of  rhetoric  and  fancy  captivate  all  hear 
ers.  These  quickening  passages  in  his  oratory  will 
ever  command  the  admiration  of  the  young ;  nor  can 
age  always  find  the  heart  to  contemn  them. 

There  were  other  counsel,  on  both  sides,  but  of  past, 
or  local  standing,  adding  nothing  to  the  aggregate  in 
terest  of  the  scene.  Not  so  of  many  eminent  men,  spec 
tators  from  a  distance — as  Commodore  Truxtun,  Gen 
eral  Eaton,  of  Derne  memory ;  General  Jackson  (wit 
ness  ) ;  Washington  Irving,*  etc.,  etc. ;  besides  distin 
guished  Virginians — John  Randolph,  foreman,  and 

Littleton  Waller  Tazewell,  member,  of  the  grand  jury ; 

• 
William  B.  Giles,  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline,  etc.,  etc. 

*  It  was  there  that  I  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  this  charming  man 
and  distinguished  author — an  agreeable  acquaintance  continued  through 
England,  France,  and  America,  down  to  his  death. 


16  Burros  Trial — Reflections. 

But  the  interest  of  the  trial,  eminent  as  was  the 
standing  of  the  defendant ;  eminent  as  was  the  forensic 
talent  engaged ;  brilliant  as  were  the  surroundings,  and 
great  as  were  the  passions  excited — the  hatreds,  hopes, 
and  fears  of  party — the  interest  would  have  been  less 
than  half,  but  that  the  majesty  of  the  law  was,  on  the 
great  occasion,  nobly  represented  and  sustained  by 
John  Marshall,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States. 
His  was  the  master  spirit  of  the  scene. 

To  Congress,  at  the  next  meeting,  the  President  sub 
mitted  the  case,  that  it  might  be  seen,  as  he  said,  wheth 
er  the  acquittal  of  Colonel  Burr  of  high  treason  was 
the  result  of  a  "  defect  in  the  testimony,  in  the  law,  or 
in  the  administration  of  the  law"  The  latter  was  un 
derstood  to  be  his  opinion.  The  calm  judgment  of  the 
bar,  however,  has  now  long  been,  that  though  the  crime 
had  been  committed,  the  prosecution  broke  down  in  its 
legal  proofs.  This  is  to  be  regretted — not  that  the 
thirst  for  blood  was  not  slaked  on  the  occasion ;  but 
because,  there  never  having  been  an  execution  in  the 
United  States  for  the  highest  of  crimes,  our  people 
were,  in  1832  and  1861,  still  untaught  a  most  needful 
lesson — that  playing  at  treason  is  a  dangerous  game  ! 
Hence,  to  threaten  treason  has  become  an  ordinary 


Reflections  Continued.  17 

party  device  in  nominating  presidents,  and  in  factious 
debates  even  on  the  floors  of  Congress ;  hence,  nullifica 
tion  in  1832-'33,  and  hence  the  present  (1863)  mighty 
rebellion.* 

*  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  three  of  our  ex- Vice-Presidents — Aaron 
Burr,  J.  C.  Calhoun,  and  J.  C.  Breckinridge — became,  each  in  his  day,  a 
leader  in  treason. 


CHAPTEE    III. 

CHANGE     OF     PROFESSION ADVENTURE    AS    A    VOLUNTEER 

RETURN   TO   THE   BAR ENTERS    THE   ARMY. 

IT  was  as  a  newly  fledged  lawyer,  looking  on  the 
trial  just  described  as  a  fine  professional  study,  that  a 
different  career  suddenly  dawned  upon  me.  In  a  sin 
gle  night  I  became  a  soldier. 

Burr's  trial  commenced  May  22,  1807.  A  month 
later  the  outrage  was  committed  by  the  British  frigate 
Leopard,  on  the  United  States  frigate  Chesapeake,  in 
our  waters  near  the  capes  of  Virginia.  The  whole 
country  was  fired  with  indignation.  July  2,  President 
Jefferson  issued  a  proclamation,  interdicting  the  use  of 
our  harbors  and  rivers  to  all  British  war  vessels.  Yol- 
unteers  were  called  for  to  enforce  the  interdict — that  is, 


Became  a   Volunteer.  19 

to  prevent  landings  to  obtain  fresh  water,  provisions, 
etc.  The  proclamation  reached  Richmond  late  in  an 
evening.  I  had  not  before  belonged  to  any  military 
organization ;  but  early  the  next  morning,  at  the  parade 
of  the  Petersburg  troop  of  cavalry  (which  had  tendered 
its  services  in  advance),  I  was  in  their  ranks,  mounted 
and  fully  equipped  for  the  field,  having  travelled 
twenty-five  miles  in  the  night,  obtained  the  uniform 
of  a  tall,  absent  trooper,  and  bought  the  extra  fine 
charger  under  me.  From  that,  my  first  parade,  the 
troop  marched  off  for  the  scene  of  its  duties. 

The  route  marches  and  encampments  of  volunteers 
have,  unfortunately,  become  too  familiar  to  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  our  people  of  the  present  day,  to  be 
worth  describing  in  this  place.  One  incident,  however, 
occurred  to  me  in  the  expedition,  which  came  very  near 
being  of  great  national  importance. 

I  belonged  to  a  detached  camp,  in  a  charming  grove, 
some  two  miles  from  Linn  Haven  Bay,  opposite  to  the 
anchorage  of  the  British  squadron.  There  lay  Sir 
Thomas  Hardy,  a  favorite  of  Nelson,  with  several  line- 
of-battle  ships  in  sullen  grandeur.  Toward  the  camp, 
the  coast  was  studded  with  downs  (dunes,  sand  hills), 
behind  which  our  small  pickets  were  posted.  One  of 


20  Lance  Corporal — Made  Prisoners. 

these  was  commanded  by  me  as  lance  corporal  (that  is, 
corporal  for  the  nonce),  when,  learning  one  night  that 
an  expedition  from  the  squadron  had  gone  up  a  neigh 
boring  creek,  I  hastened  with  my  guard  to  intercept 
its  return.  At  the  proper  point  a  charge  was  made, 
and  the  whole  crew,  two  midshipmen  and  six  oarsmen, 
made  prisoners.  This  was  the  more  easily  done,  it  is 
true,  as  they  were  all  unarmed,  and  by  the  ebb  of  the 
tide  the  boat  could  scarcely  be  pushed  through  the 
mud.  The  picket  being  relieved,  and  returning  to  the 
pleasant  camp  next  morning,  the  ex-corporal,  jealous 
as  Hotspur  of  his  prisoners,  had  the  exclusive  charge 
of  them  conceded  to  him.  The  midshipmen  sat  on  his 
right  and  left  at  a  sylvan  table,  around  which  the  whole 
troop — consisting  of  young  lawyers,  doctors,  and  mer 
chants,  like  so  many  officers  —  took  their  meals  and 
hobnobbed  together.  Of  course,  at  dinner,  extra 
wine  and  porter  were  allowed  the  corporal  for  his 
charge,  who,  astonished,  inquired  if  all  American  sol 
diers  lived  like  gentlemen  ? 

This  incident,  which  gave  life  to  the  camp,  was  re 
garded  as  quite  an  "  untoward  event "  in  Washington. 
The  Federalists  were  numerous  and  bitter  in  opposition, 
and  as  a  republic  is  never  prepared  for  war,  perhaps  a 


Return  to  ike  Bar.  21 

little  temporizing  was  necessary.  Hence,  notwithstand 
ing  the  long  series  of  British  wrongs,  capped  by  the  re 
cent  outrage,  Mr.  Jefferson  hesitated  to  take  open  and 
direct  measures  of  retaliation.  After  deliberation  and 
delay,  orders  came  to  restore  the  prisoners  to  Sir  Thomas 
Hardy,  with  the  imbecile  admonition,  usual  in  such 
cases :  Take  care  not  to  do  so  again. 

In  February,  1816,  I  met,  in  London,  at  Lord  Hol 
land's  hospitable  board,  one  of  those  midshipmen,  then 
Captain  Fox.  By  his  request  he  was  brought  up  and 
presented.  He  began  by  apologizing  for  supposing  that 
the  major-general  before  him  could  be  the  Corporal 
Scott  whose  prisoner  he  had  once  been;  but  added, 
"  the  name,  height,  etc.,  etc.,  seem  to  exclude  doubt." 
On  being  assured  on  the  subject,  a  most  cordial  greet 
ing  and  intimacy  ensued  between  the  parties. 

The  special  outrage  on  the  Chesapeake  frigate  was 
now  in  a  train  of  settlement.  The  prospect  of  war 
seemed  at  an  end,  as  the  smaller  wrongs  would,  it  was 
supposed,  follow  the  course  of  the  greater.  The  young 
soldier  had  heard  the  bugle  and  the  drum.  It  was  the 
music  that  awoke  ambition.  But  the  new  occupation 
was  gone.  He  had  to  fall  back  on  his  original  profes- 


o 

sion. 


22  South  Carolina  Legislature. 

I  left  Virginia  in  October,  180T,  intending  to  estab 
lish  myself  in  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Charleston, 
South  Carolina.  I  took  Columbia  in  the  way,  to  peti 
tion  the  Legislature  to  dispense  me  from  the  twelve 
months'  previous  residence  required  of  non-native  ap 
plicants  for  admission  to  the  bar.  The  law  makers  in 
South  Carolina,  of  180T,  composed  the  most  dignified 
as  well  as  the  most  intelligent  body  of  the  kind  then  in 
the  Union.  Among  these  were  William  Lowndes,  the 
most  accomplished  statesman,  generally,  of  his  day — 
not  merely  in  wisdom,  but  also  in  temper  and  powers 
of  conciliation.  Langdon  Cheves  was  already  an  able 
debater,  much  confided  in  by  the  House  and  his  people 
at  home.  William  Drayton,  mild,  pensive,  persuasive, 
was  high  in  the  law,  and  philosophy  of  legislation. 
Caton  Simmons,  quite  young,  with  a  wide  scope  of  in 
tellect,  had  ready  eloquence  and  an  indomitable  spirit. 
There  was  also  another  Lowndes  and  two  Deases — all 
men  of  mark ;  and  every  member  named,  with  scores 
of  others,  conspicuous  for  good  manners,  good  morals, 
and,  at  least,  a  leaven  of  genuine  chivalry.  John  C. 
Calhoun  was  yet  at  home,  in  the  early  practice  of 
the  law. 

I  spent  many  weeks  agreeably  and  profitably  at 


Charleston — Slave  Ships.  23 

Columbia,  including  the  period  of  that  session ;  but  my 
petition  failed  from  the  want  of  time. 

I  next  made  arrangements  for  in-door  practice  in 
Charleston,  till  time  should  qualify  me  to  appear  in 
court,  and  went  down  to  that  city  in  company  with, 
and  under  the  patronage  of  a  friend,  a  man  of  very  re 
markable  gifts  and  virtues,  Judge  Wilds,  a  native  of 
the  State,  yet  under  forty,  and  high  on  the  bench.  So 
fine  a  head  and  stature  have  rarely  been  seen.  To 
genius  and  learning  was  added,  in  his  case,  a  temper 
sweet  as  that  of  a  child.  He  it  was  who,  in  sentencing 
a  master  that  had  wilfully  killed  a  slave,  to  a  fine  of  a 
hundred  pounds,  currency — the  penalty  limited  by  an 
old  statute, — wept  tears  of  bitterness  that  he  could  not 
substitute  the  gallows,  and  threw  out  such  a  flood  of 
indignant  eloquence  against  the  barbarity  of  the  law, 
that  it  was  by  the  next  Legislature  unanimously  repeal 
ed.  But,  alas  !  "  whom  the  gods  love,  die  young." 

I  arrived  at  Charleston  Christmas  eve,  1807.*     I 

*  A  very  few  days  earlier  there  came  into  port  two  slave  ships  filled 
with  native  Africans,  the  last  that  ever  were  entered  at  an  American  cus 
tom  house,  as  the  trade  ceased  with  the  year  1807.  The  cargoes,  promptly 
landed,  appeared  to  have  been  well  cared  for  on  the  ocean,  where  but  few 
had  died.  All  were  fitly  clothed,  lodged,  and  fed.  A  few,  wasted  by  sick 
ness,  were  placed  in  an  infirmary,  but  fearing  that  it  was  intended  to  pre- 


24  Returns  North. 

there  learned  that  the  prospect  of  hostilities  with  Eng 
land  had,  at  Washington,  flared  up  again.  Only  the 
affair  of  the  Leopard  and  Chesapeake,  as  it  turned  out, 
had  been  atoned — leaving  the  prior  British  wrongs,  and 
many  new  cases  of  the  same  class,  to  rankle  in  the 
hearts  of  Americans.  Hen^e  it  was  believed,  almost 
universally,  at  Charleston,  that  the  embargo  on  all 
American  shipping,  just  laid,  was  but  the  immediate 
precursor  of  a  war  manifesto  on  the  part  of  Congress. 
I,  strong  in  that  opinion,  promptly  abandoned  my  new 
law  arrangements  and  embarked  for  Washington,  via 
New  York,  to  seek  a  commission  in  some  new  marching 
regiment.  A  bill,  indeed,  authorizing  the  trebling  of 

pare  them  to  be  eaten,  they  starved  themselves  to  death.  All  believed 
that  they  would  rise  from  the  grave  in  their  native  land.  Several  Cuban 
planters,  visited  on  their  estates,  gave  illustrations  of  a  like  superstition. 
One  of  them,  who  cultivated  sugar  on  the  coast,  had  a  mountain  infirmary 
to  which  he  sent,  out  of  a  purchase  of  some  forty  new  arrivals  from  Africa, 
seven  adults,  men  and  women,  who  were  in  feeble  health.  Not  doubting 
they  were  intended  for  their  master's  table,  all  hung  themselves  the  first 
night.  Africans  are  as  fond  of  jewelry  as  the  nouveau  riche  among  our 
selves.  Thus,  a  young  woman,  selected  from  a  cargo,  was  kindly  treated 
and  instructed  as  their  personal  servant,  by  the  mother  and  daughter  of 
another  family.  Very  soon  the  ingrate  pagan  stole  the  ladies'  jewels,  cov 
ered  herself  with  them,  and  applied  the  fatal  cord,  in  the  firm  belief  that  she 
would  soon  revive  in  her  own  African  paradise,  wUh  all  the  stolen  orna 
ments  upon  her ! 


Visit  to  the  President — Promise,  etc.          25 

our  regular  forces,  had  followed  closely  the  embargo 
act ;  but  again,  after  a  few  weeks  of  excitement,  the  ad 
vocates  of  peace  at  any  price  seemed  to  gain  the  ascen 
dant.  In  the  mean  time  the  would  fie  a  soldier  had  been 
received  with  favor  by  the  President  *  and  Secretary 
of  War,  on  presentation  by  his  neighbor  and  friend, 
the  Hon.  William  B.  Giles,  and  a  captaincy  promised, 
if  the  augmentation  bill  should  become  a  law. 

*  On  waiting  on  Mr.  Jefferson,  we  found  with  him  Dr.  Mitchell,  of  New 
York,  and  Dr.  Walter  Jones,  of  Virginia  (two  members  of  Congress), 
making  three  incessant  talkers.  Mr.  Giles  was  also  distinguished  for  his 
colloquial  powers.  In  a  sitting  of  thirty  minutes,  but  two  monologues 
were  delivered — the  other  two  personages  being  in  a  state  of  forced  silence, 
but  making  efforts  to  get  the  word.  Swift,  who,  according  to  Dr.  Johnson, 
though  captivated  by  the  attention  of  steady  listeners,  always  made  regu 
lar  pauses  in  conversation,  for  the  benefit  of  interlocutors,  has  had  but  few 
imitators  hi  this  politeness.  Mr.  Jefferson,  one  of  those  silenced,  at  length 
turned  to  the  autobiographer :  "  Well  young  man,  what  have  you  seen  hi 
Washington  ?  Have  you  visited  the  Capitol  ?  Whom  have  you  heard 
speak ?  "  "I  was,  sir,  in  the  House  yesterday,  and  heard  a  part  of  Barent 
Gardenier's  six  hours'  speech  on  the  embargo."  This  was  enough.  Mr. 
G.,  a  member  from  the  city  of  New  York,  was  bitter  in  opposition,  and 
Mr.  J.  knew  he  had  handled  him  with  severity  in  that  speech.  Suddenly  in 
terrupting  Mitchell,  the  colleague  of  Gardenier,  the  president  said :  "  Doc 
tor,  I  have  just  thought  of  an  object  to  which  to  compare  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Sir,  it  is  like  the  chimneys  to  our  dwellings ;  it  carries 
off  the  smoke  of  party,  which  might  otherwise  stifle  the  nation."  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  now  in  his  second  term  of  office,  and  not  a  candidate  for  a 
third. 

2 


26  The  J3ar — Criminal  Reform. 

Early  in  March,  1808,  the  war  party  being  on  the 
descending  scale,  and  the  spring  term  of  the  courts  of 
Virginia  about  to  commence,  the  postponed  soldier  re 
turned  to  Petersburg,  and  began  again  the  same  circuit 
he  had  made  the  year  before. 

The  great  leader  of  the  Petersburg  circuit  was,  at 
that  day,  George  Keith  Taylor,  an  ex-judge  of  a  new 
circuit  bench  created  in  February,  1801,  and  abolished 
by  the  Eepublicans  in  1802,  the  members  of  which 
were  called  midnight  judges,  having  been  nominated 
and  confirmed  within  the  last  hour  of  Mr.  Adams's  ad 
ministration.  Judge  Taylor,  the  simplest,  the  most 
amiable  and  benevolent  of  men,  had  a  giant's  strength, 
both  in  the  halls  of  justice  and  legislation,  but  was 
always  most  of  a  giant  on  the  side  of  freedom,  mercy, 
charity.  He  it  was,  the  first  in  Christendom,  who  em 
bodied  the  principles  of  Beccaria  in  the  criminal  code 
of  a  state,*  and  founded  a  penitentiary,  the  comple- 

*  Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  in  England,  published  a  pamphlet  in  favor  of  a 
like  amelioration  in  1787,  and  followed  up  the  subject,  in  Parliament, 
from  the  time  he  took  his  seat  (in  1806)  to  his  death  in  1818.  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  as  Home  Secretary,  beginning  in  1822,  caused  several  bills  to  be 
passed  which  finally  effected  the  object — some  twenty-eight  years  after  the 
amelioration  in  Virginia.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  principle  of  this 
reform  is  urged  with  great  force  in  the  Rambler,  No.  114,  of  April,  1751, 


Slavery  in  Court.  27 

ment  of  that  enlightened  measure ;  and  he  it  was,  him 
self,  a  slaveholder,  who,  in  the  great  suits  of  the  time, 
brought  by  slaves  for  the  recovery  of  freedom,  without 
fee  in  hand  or  in  expectancy,  always  stepped  forward 
their  honored  champion  and  victor. 

It  is  due  to  Virginia,  which  had  slavery  forced  upon 
her  against  her  protests,  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of  one 
of  those  trials.  By  law :  1.  The  plaintiffs  were  per 
mitted  to  sue  in  forma  pauper  is,  which  exempted  them 
from  all  taxes  and  fees  to  the  State  and  the  officers  of 
the  court.  2.  They  had  to  prove  that  their  ancestress, 
Hannah,  was  a  free  woman,  in  this  case  an  Indian. 
This  was  done  by  several  very  aged  witnesses,  who  re 
membered  her,  and  swore  that  she  was  always  called 
an  Indian,  and  had  the  peculiar  marks  of  the  race ; 
and  3.  That  they,  the  plaintiffs,  were  the  descendants, 
through  females,  of  that  woman.  Tradition  was  al 
lowed  to  supply  this  link  in  the  proof  of  each  case.  It 
being  established  that  the  ancestress  was  a  free  woman, 


and  Beccaria's  book  was  not  published  till  1764.  Beccaria  was  himself  a 
periodical  essayist,  having  established  the  Cajfe,  on  the  plan  of  the  Specta 
tor^  at  Milan,  1764.  Was  he  a  reader  of  the  Rambler?  The  Rambler  was 
translated  into  Italian,  under  the  title  of  11  Vagabondo  ;  but  in  what  year 
is  not  ascertained. 


28  Slavery  in  Court. 

that  is,  an  Indian,  and  all  presumptions  in  courts  are 
on  the  side  of  freedom,  the  court  next  devolved  on  the 
defendants  (masters)  the  burden  of  showing  that  though 
an  Indian,  Hannah  had  been  captured  in  war  and  sold 
into  slavery,  during  a  certain  two  years  when  it  was 
lawful  so  to  deal  with  prisoners.  (Such  was  the  Span 
ish  law  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.)  Here  the 
defendants  broke  down.  Let  it  be  added  that,  besides 
the  counsel  for  the  negroes,  the  judge,  the  clerk  of  the 
court,  the  sheriff,  and  every  juryman  at  the  trial,  were 
all  slaveholders. 

I  had  a  slight  connection  with  this  interesting  case. 
My  brother  held  a  number  of  the  plaintiffs,  his  coach 
man,  Frank,  being  the  leader  of  the  whole.  On  the 
approach  of  the  trial,  I,  the  guest  of  my  brother  at  the 
time,  filled  up  the  subpoenas  for  Frank,  who,  to  serve 
them  and  to  attend  the  court,  called  on  his  master  for  a 
horse,  with  money  to  pay  expenses,  which  were  fur 
nished.  On  his  success,  Frank  proposed  to  remain  with 
his  late  master,  on  moderate  wages,  in  consideration 
of  the  maintenance  of  some  of  the  family  who  could 
not  work,  and  did  remain  till  death  separated  them. 

I  find  a  most  pleasurable  emotion  in  recalling  a 
a  visit  to  Judge  T.'s  bedroom  on  the  circuit,  to  beg 


The  Circuit — A  Captain.  29 

advice  on  a  critical  point  in  a  law  paper  I  had  in  my 
hand ;  to  remember  how  readily  the  fatigued  judge, 
obese  and  lethargic,  stopped  his  night  toilet,  and,  in 
the  kindest  manner — which  a  life  is  not  long  enough 
to  forget — gave  all  the  information  needed.  And  this 
great  and  good  man  also  died  young — under  forty-five. 
At  length  the  commission  of  captain  of  light,  or 
flying  artillery  came  to  me,  dated  May  3,  1808.  I  re 
cruited  my  company  in  Petersburg  and  Richmond  in 
the  course  of  a  few  months,  and  next  was  ordered, 
with  it,  to  Norfolk,  to  be  embarked  for  New  Orleans. 


CHAPTEK    IT. 


THE   BAR   AND    THE    SWORD. 

FEBRUARY  4,  1809,  I  embarked  with  my  company 
for  ~New  Orleans,  in  a  clump  of  a  ship,  half  rotten,  and 
with  a  master  so  ignorant  that  he  did  not  know  of  the 
passage  among  the  Bahama  Islands  called  the  Hole  in 
the  Wall.  Hence,  we  had  to  sail  around  the  Island  of 
Cuba  (nearly  doubling  the  passage),  and  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (the  Balize)  in  thirty-five 
days,  where  the  ship  lost  her  rudder  on  the  bar.  This 
accident  causing  a  further  delay,  we  did  not  reach 
New  Orleans  till  April  1. 

The  excitement  that  caused  the  augmentation  of 
the  army  the  year  before,  like  that  which  led  to  the 


Peace  or  War?  31 

embargo,  soon  subsided,  to  rise  and  fall  again  and  again 
in  the  next  four  years.  So  great  was  the  calm  in  the 
summer  of  1809  that  I  once  more  turned  my  mind  to 
ward  civil  pursuits,  and  sailed  for  Yirginia.  Before 
my  resignation  had  been  definitely  accepted  by  the 
"War  Department,  I  heard  that  grave  charges  would  be 
brought  against  me  if  I  dared  to  return  to  the  army  of 
the  Lower  Mississippi.  This  was  decisive.  At  once  I 
resolved  to  face  my  accusers.  Accordingly,  I  rejoined 
the  main  army,  then  at  Washington,  near  Natchez,  in 
November. 

The  army  of  that  day,  including  its  general  staff, 
the  three  old  and  the  nine  new  regiments,  presented  no 
pleasing  aspect.  The  old  officers  had,  very  generally, 
sunk  into  either  sloth,  ignorance,  or  habits  of  intem 
perate  drinking.  Among  the  honorable  exceptions 
were :  1.  Macomb,  who  won  the  battle  of  Plattsburg, 
and  died,  in  1841,  a  major-general  and  general-in-chief 
of  the  army.  2.  Swift,  who  aided  in  the  general  or 
ganizing  of  the  new  army  in  1812,  took  an  active  part 
in  the  field  the  next  year,  and  gained  the  rank  of  brig 
adier-general.  3.  McEee,  of  North  Carolina,  who  won 
the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  field,  and  died  in  1832 — an 
officer  of  rare  merit.  4.  Wood,  of  New  York,  often 


32  The  Old  Army. 

distinguished  in  the  field,  and  brevetted ;  was  killed  in 
the  sortie  from  Fort  Erie,  September,  1814,  after  at 
taining  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  with  another 
brevet  then  due  him.  5.  Totten,  distinguished  at 
Queenstown,  October,  1812,  and  who  won  the  rank 
of  brigadier-general  at  the  siege  of  Yera  Cruz.  He  is 
now  (1863)  twenty-odd  years  the  able  chief  of  his  corps. 
6.  Thayer,  now  long  a  colonel,  brevetted  for  distin 
guished  conduct  and  meritorious  services  in  the  War 
of  1812-'15,  who,  as  superintendent  from  1817  to  1833 
of  the  Military  Academy,  gave  development  and  great 
excellence  to  that  institution — stamping  upon  it  his 
own  high  character.  The  foregoing  were  all  engi 
neers.  7.  Moses  Porter,  first  distinguished  as  a  ser 
geant  of  artillery  at  Mudfort  (afterward  Fort  Mimin), 
and  in  1779  and  the  following  campaigns  as  lieutenant 
and  captain.  He  died  in  1822  a  brigadier-general,  a 
rank  won  by  gallant  services  in  the  War  of  1812— '15, 
and  though  deficient  in  science,  yet  by  his  gallantry  in 
front  of  the  enemy,  his  great  practical  abilities  in  the 
laboratory  and  workshops,  combined  with  fine  soldier 
ly  habits  and  bearing,  he  made  himself  invaluable.  8. 
Colonel  Burbeck,  to  some  extent  a  compeer  of  Porter 
in  both  wars,  also  a  brigadier-general  in  1812,  and 


The  Old  Army.  33 

who  had  much  merit  of  the  same  general  character. 
9.  Captain  (subsequently  Brigadier)  House.  10.  Colonel 
Bomford,  an  engineer,  but  distinguished  as  an  artiller 
ist  in  the  operations  of  the  arsenals  and  machine  shops. 
11.  Colonel  James  Gibson,  killed  in  the  sortie  from 
Fort  Erie.  12.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Heileman,  died 
at  Fort  Drane  in  1836.  13.  Major  George  Armistead, 
distinguished  in  the  defence  of  Fort  McHenry  (Balti 
more)  in  1814.  14,  15,  16,  and  17.  Majors  John  San 
ders,  George  Peter,  and  M.  P.  Lomax,  with  Captain 
Samuel  Spotts,  artillerists,  all  with  merit,  more  or  less. 
Coming  to  the  old  infantry  (1st  and  2d  regiments),  but 
few  officers  are  remembered  worthy  of  particular  no 
tice.  18.  Pike,  then  major,  was  made  a  brigadier- 
general  in  1813,  and  soon  after  fell  at  the  capture  of 
York,  Upper  Canada,  under  Major-General  Dearborn. 
19.  Gaines,  then  a  captain,  who  won,  as  brigadier,  the 
rank  of  major-general  by  the  defence  of  Fort  Erie  in 
August,  1814.  20  and  21.  "William  E.  Boote,  and 
Ninian  Pinkney,  who  became  colonels  in  the  staff  in 
1813 ;  and  22.  William  Lawrence,  made  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  3  814,  for  the  defence  of  Fort  Bowyer,  on 
the  Mobile.  The  general  staff  of  the  army  of  that  day 

was  small.     23.  Colonel  A.  G.  Nicoll  was  the  respec- 
2* 


34  Old  and  New  Army. 

table  adjutant  and  inspector  of  the  army;  but, .24. 
William  Linnard,  long  "  military  agent,"  without  army 
rank,  and  only  made  quartermaster-general,  with  the 
rank  of  colonel,  in  1813,  was  a  public  servant  of  the 
rarest  merit  in  his  way.  For  thirty-three  years  he 
made,  at  Philadelphia,  all  disbursements  on  account 
of  the  army  (saving  the  monthly  payments  to  troops), 
amounting  to  fifty-odd  millions,  without  the  loss  of 
a  cent,  and  at  the  smallest  cost  in  storage,  clerk  hire, 
and  other  incidental  expenses  ever  known.  He  per 
sonally  performed  double,  if  not  treble,  the  amount  of 
ordinary  labor.  His  integrity,  at  his  death  in  1835, 
had  long  been  proverbial.  25.  Simeon  Knight,  pay 
master,  and  who  became  colonel  in  1813,  was  a  good 
disbursing  officer.  26  and  2T.  Surgeon  Dennis  Claude, 
M.  D.,  and  Surgeon  Oliver  H.  Spencer,  M.  D.,  were 
eminent  in  their  profession,  and  highly  esteemed  gen 
erally. 

I  will  not  here  undertake  to  dissect,  in  like  manner, 
the  officers  who  entered  the  army  with  me  in  1808  (and 
of  whom  my  name  alone  remains,  in  1863,  on  the  Army 
Register).  The  labor  would  be  great,  and  the  interest 
to  most  readers  small.  It  may,  however,  be  safely  said 
that  many  of  the  appointments  were  positively  bad, 


New  Army.  35 

and  a  majority  of  the  remainder  indifferent.  Party 
spirit  of  that  day  knew  no  bounds,  and,  of  course,  was 
blind  to  policy.  Federalists  were  almost  entirely  ex 
cluded  from  selection,  though  great  numbers  were  eager 
for  the  field,  and  in  the  ]STew  England  and  some  other 
States,  there  were  but  very  few  educated  Republicans. 
Hence  the  selections  from  those  communities  consisted 
mostly  of  coarse  and  ignorant  men.  In  the  other 
States,  where  there  was  no  lack  of  educated  men  in 
the  dominant  party,  the  appointments  consisted,  gener 
ally,  of  swaggerers,  dependants,  decayed  gentlemen,  and 
others  — "  fit  for  nothing  else,"  which  always  turned 
out  utterly  unfit  for  any  military  purpose  whatever. 
These  were  the  men,  who,  on  the  return  of  peace,  be 
came  the  "  unscarred  braggarts  of  the  war,"  a  heavy 
burden  to  the  Government,  and,  as  beggars,  to  the 
country.  Such  were  the  results  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  low 
estimate  of,  or  rather  contempt  for,  the  military  char 
acter,  the  consequence  of  the  old  hostility  between 
him  and  the  principal  officers  who  achieved  our  inde 
pendence.  In  1808  the  West  Point  Academy  had 
graduated  but  few  cadets  —  nearly  all  of  whom  are 
specially  mentioned  above  as  meritorious ;  for  a  booby 
Bent  thither,  say  at  the  age  of  16,  17,  or  even  19 — and 


36  Military  Academy — Parties. 

there  are  many  such  in  every  new  batch — is,  in  his 
term  of  four  years,  duly  manipulated,  and,  in  most 
cases,  polished,  pointed,  and  sent  to  a  regiment  with  a 
head  upon  his  shoulders;  whereas,  if  a  booby  be  at 
once  made  a  commissioned  officer,  the  odds  are  great 
that  he  will  live  and  die  a  booby.  How  infinitely  un 
wise  then,  in  a  republic,  to  trust  its  safety  and  honor  in 
battles,  in  a  critical  war  like  that  impending  over  us 
in  1808,  to  imbeciles  and  ignoramuses  !  * 

It  has  been  stated  that  I  rejoined  the  army  in 
November,  1809.  The  officers  were  divided  into  two 
factions.  Nearly  all  old  in  commission,  and  a  majority 
of  the  appointments  of  1808,  were  partisans  of  Briga 
dier-General  Wilkinson,  late  commander  on  the  Lower 
Mississippi.  The  remainder  were  the  supporters  of  his 
successor,  Brigadier-General  Hampton.  "Wilkinson  was 

*  The  officers  appointed  to  the  large  augmentations  of  the  army  in  1812 
and  1813,  by  President  Madison,  were,  from  nearly  the  same  reasons,  of 
the  same  general  character.  President  Lincoln,  and  Mr.  Cameron,  Secre 
tary  of  War,  accepting  the  assistance  of  experienced  officers  near  them, 
made,  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  many  excellent  selections  of  officers 
for  the  new  regiments  then  authorized.  President  Jackson,  in  respect  to 
the  2d  Dragoons,  raised  in  his  time,  and  President  Polk,  in  respect  to  the 
Bine  Regiment  raised  in  1846,  followed  the  examples  of  1808,  1812,  and 
1813.  To  the  new  regiments  organized  in  the  time  of  President  Pierce, 
many  indifferent  officers  were  given. 


Parties  in  the  Army.  37 

the  favorite  of  the  new  officers  (all  Republicans)  be 
cause,  as  brother  conspirator,  he  had  turned  State's  evi 
dence  or  "  approver,"  against  Bun*,  and  Burr's  treason 
had  been  prosecuted  with  zeal  at  the  instance  of  Mr. 
Jefferson.  Some  of  these  partisans  had  heard  me,  in 
an  excited  conversation,  the  preceding  summer,  just  be 
fore  I  sailed  for  the  North,  say  that  I  knew,  soon  after 
the  trial,  from  my  friends,  Mr.  Randolph  and  Mr. 
Tazewell,  as  well  as  others,  members  of  the  grand  jury, 
who  found  the  bill  of  indictment  against  Burr,  that 
nothing  but  the  influence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  had  saved 
Wilkinson  from  being  included  in  the  same  indict 
ment,  and  that  I  believed  Wilkinson  to  have  been 
equally  a  traitor  with  Burr.  This  was  in  New  Orleans, 
the  headquarters  of  Wilkinson,  commanding  the  de 
partment.  The  expression  of  that  belief  was  not  only 
imprudent,  but,  no  doubt,  at  that  time,  blamable; 
inasmuch  as  the  6th  article  of  war  enacts  that  "  any 
officer,  etc.,  who  shall  behave  with  contempt  or  dis 
respect  toward  his  commanding  officer,  shall  be  pun 
ished,"  etc.  But  this  was  not  the  declaration  that  was 
now  to  be  tried,  but  a  similar  one,  made  after  my  re 
turn  to  the  army,  when  Wilkinson,  though  still  in  the 
neighborhood  and  the  "superior,"  was  no  longer  the 


38  The  Court  Martial. 

"  commanding  officer  "  (being  off  duty),  but  Hampton. 
Notwithstanding  the  reasonable  distinction  between 
commanding  and  superior  officer,  plainly  recognized 
in  the  articles  of  war  (see  the  9th),  and  strongly  urged 
in  the  defence  (made  without  counsel),  the  court  found 
me  guilty  of  this  specification,  and  pronounced  my 
"  conduct  unofficer-like ;  "  but  not  ungenflemanly,  as 
was  expressly  and  maliciously  charged  by  the  prose 
cutor.  This  officer,  a  violent  partisan,  who  lived  and 
died  a  reprobate — as  a  blind,  to  cover  his  instigator, 
trumped  up  another  matter  as  the  leading  accusation, 
viz. :  withholding  money  intended  for  the  payment  of 
the  company ;  and  this  too  was  charged  under  the  head 
of  "conduct  unbecoming  an  officer  and  gentleman." 
The  case  was  simply  this :  that  of  some  $4:00  remitted 
to  me  as  captain  for  the*  payment  of  my  company  at 
Bichmond,  no  sufficient  receipts,  through  ignorance  of 
forms,  were  taken  for  about  $47,  although  the  greater 
part  of  this  small  sum  had  also  been  advanced  to  the 
individuals  to  whom  it  was  due,  and  the  remaining  in 
significant  fraction  could  not  be  paid  over  by  reason 
of  the  intermediate  deaths  of  some  two  or  three  of  the 
men.  Certainly  nothing  could  have  been  more  irregu- 
lar  than  those  payments  ;  but  the  prescribed  receipt 


The  Court  Martial.  39 

rolls  had  not  been  furnished,  and  of  the  whole  com 
pany,  including  officers,  not  an  individual  had  ever 
been  present  at  a  payment,  or  seen  a  roll  used  for 
the  purpose.  Moreover,  captains  are  not  the  paymas 
ters  of  their  respective  companies.  The  duty  was 
wrongfully  imposed.  A  proper  paymaster  should 
have  been  sent  with  the  proper  papers.  The  court 
found  the  accused  guilty  of  this  specification,  and  pro 
nounced  "  his  conduct  unofficer-like,"  and  sentenced 
him,  on  the  two  findings,  to  be  suspended  for  twelve 
months.  "But  \it  was  carefully  added}  the  court 
have  no  hesitation  in  acquitting  the  accused  of  all 
fraudulent  intentions  in  detaining  the  pay  of  his 
men"  And  further,  the  court  recommended  that  nine 
months  of  the  suspension  should  be  remitted. 

Those  findings  call  for  two  general  remarks :  1. 
The  court,  in  each  case,  not  only  omit  to  add  to 
"  conduct  unofficer-like "  the  attainting  words  "  and 
ungentleinanly ; "  but  in  the  only  case  where  corrup 
tion  or  dishonor  could  have  been  involved,  the  court 
unhesitatingly  and  expressly  acquit  the  accused  of 
"all  fraudulent  intentions."  Indeed,  how  could  fraud 
have  been  intended,  or  perpetrated?  The  Treasury 
charged  the  captain  with  the  whole  sum  he  receipted 


4:0  Court  Martial. 

for.  If  he  failed  to  return  valid  receipts  for  the  whole 
amount,  his  pay  would  at  once  be  stopped  to  balance 
the  account.  The  Treasury,  therefore,  could  not  be 
defrauded,  nor  the  unpaid  men,  as  the  Treasury  would 
remain  their  debtor  until  the  next  visit  of  a  regular 
paymaster.  The  imputation,  therefore,  was  both  stupid 
and  malignant.  2.  According  to  the  83d  Article  of 
War,  any  commissioned  officer  "  convicted  of  conduct 
unbecoming  an  officer  and  a  gentleman  shall  be  dis 
missed  the  service  " — leaving  the  court  no  discretion. 

The  earlier  treason  of  Wilkinson,  strongly  suspect 
ed  at  the  time,  beginning  about  1787,  and  continued 
many  years  after  he  was  the  commander  of  the  United 
States'  Army,  is  now  fully  established  in  Charles  Gay- 
arre's  History  of  Louisiana,  under  Spanish  do-ruina 
tion*  by  Wilkinson's  own  letters,  addressed  to  the  sov- 

i/  O 

ernor  of  Louisiana,  found  in  the  archives  of  Madrid. 
See  the  4th,  5th,  6th,  and  7th  chapters  of  the  History 
passim^  published  by  Redfield,  New  York,  1854.  And 
for  the  manner  of  obtaining  the  letters,*  see  note  to 
page  211.  Mr.  Gayarre  was  many  years  Secretary 
of  State  of  Louisiana,  and  in  1835  elected  to  the 

*  They  were  copied  under  the  eye  of  our  minister  (Hon.  R.  Saunders), 
by  Mr.  De  Gayangos,  for  the  legislature  of  Louisiana. 


Suspension.  41 

Senate  of  the  United  States,  an  honor  he  declined 
on  account  of  bad  health.  Wilkinson's  object  was 
to  separate  the  whole  Western  territory  from  the 
Union,  to  be  added  to  the  crown  of  Spain,  whose  pen 
sioner  he  was  down  to  1795.  Burr's  scheme  was  a 
little  different,  in  which  Wilkinson  undoubtedly  par 
ticipated  for  a  time. 

The  autobiographer,  in  1810,  again  returned  to  his 
home ;  became  domesticated  with  his  invaluable  friend, 
Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  of  Petersburg,  the  worthy 
rival,  at  the  bar,  of  George  Keith  Taylor;  a  distin 
guished  member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
and  long,  before  his  death,  the  undisputed  head  of  the 
law  in  Yirginia.  Conservative  and  moral  in  the  high 
est  degree,  this  gifted  man,  son  of  a  distinguished 
Episcopal  minister,  and  the  pupil  of  another — Neilly 
Robertson — added  to  his  high  collegiate  attainments 
no  mean  acquaintance  with  theology.  In  the  evenings 
of  a  twelvemonth  the  parties  read  aloud  to  each  other, 
with  running  comments,  principally  by  the  senior,  per 
haps,  every  choice  passage  in  English  literature.  To 
those  readings,  and  to  his  conversation  and  example, 
I  have  owed,  in  every  struggle  and  triumph  of  life, 
great  and  pleasing  obligations. 


42  Suspension. 

The  following  letter,  which  the  writer  had  entirely 
forgotten  till  he  saw  it  in  print,  alludes  to  this  period 
— the  period  of  his  suspension. 

From  the  National  Intelligencer  of  February  25,  1855. 

"PETERSBURG,  June,  1811. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : 

"  I  believe  we  have  very  little  village  news  to  give 
you,  nor  do  I  know  what  would  please  you  in  that 
way. 

"  Of  myself — that  personage  who  fills  so  large  a 
space  in  every  man's  own  imagination,  and  so  small  a 
one  in  the  imagination  of  every  other — I  can  say  but 
little ;  perhaps  less  would  please  you  more.  Since  my 
return  to  Virginia,  my  time  has  been  passed  in  easy 
"transitions  from  pleasure  to  study,  from  study  to  pleas 
ure  ;  in  my  gayety  forgetting  the  student ;  in  the  stu 
dent  forgetting  my  gayety.*  I  have  generally  been  in 
the  office  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Leigh,  though  not  unmind 
ful  of  the  studies  connected  with  my  present  profes 
sion  ;  but  you  will  easily  conceive  my  military  ardor 
has  suffered  abatement.  Indeed,  it  is  my  design,  as 

*  "  If  idle,  be  not  solitary ;  if  solitary,  be  not  idle."    An  apothegm  of 
Burton  paraphrased  by  Johnson.     My  early  motto. 


Return  to  the  Army.  43 

soon  as  circumstances  will  permit,  to  throw  the  feather 
out  of  my  cap  and  resume  it  in  my  hand.  Yet,  should 
war  come  at  last,  my  enthusiasm  will  be  rekindled; 
and  then,  who  "knows  ~but  that  I  may  yet  write  my  his 
tory  with  my  swwd  f 

"  Tours,  truly, 

"  WINFIELD  SCOTT." 

"LEWIS  EDWARDS,  ESQ.,  Washington.'1'' 

Mr.  E.,  a  friend,  to  whom  the  letter  was  addressed, 
a  native  of  Massachusetts,  had  long  resided  in  Peters 
burg,  and  was,  in  1811,  a  principal  officer  in  the  War 
Department.  It  is  understood  that  his  son,  a  respect 
able  resident  of  Washington,  and  for  many  years  a 
most  exemplary  Commissioner  of  Pensions,  communi 
cated  the  original  letter  to  the  National  Intelligencer 
on  the  occasion  of  the  writer's  promotion  to  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-general. 

In  the  autumn  of  1811  I  rejoined  the  army,  head 
quarters,  Baton  Rouge,  by  the  land  route,  in  a  party 
of  five,  made  up  in  South  Carolina.  In  the  preceding 
spring  two  detachments  of  troops  were  started — one 
from  Fort  Hawkins,  on  the  Ocmulgee,  then  the  In 
dian  frontier,  far  within  Georgia,  and  the  other  from 


4A  Indian  Country. 

Baton  Kouge,  on  the  Mississippi,  to  cut  through  the 
intermediate  forests  a  practical  wagon  road,  to  bridge 
the  smaller  streams,  to  construct  scows,  and  to  estab 
lish  ferries  (to  be  kept  by  Indians)  on  the  rivers.  The 
whole  space,  up  to  the  eastern  line  of  Louisiana,  be 
longed  to,  and  was  occupied  by,  Creeks,  Choctaws, 
and  other  Indians,  excepting  two  small  settlements 
of  less,  together,  than  a  dozen  white  families,  about 
Fort  Stevens  and  Fort  Stoddart,  both  on  the  Mobile. 
The  party  was  a  little  delayed,  near  the  middle  of  the 
route,  waiting  for  the  meeting  of  the  two  detachments 
of  troops.  The  wagons  of  the  troops,  with  a  gig  and 
light  wagon  *  belonging  to  the  travellers,  were  the  first 
wheeled  vehicles  that  ever  rolled  over  that  immense 
tract  of  country  of  some  six  hundred  miles  in  width. 

Crossing  the  Ocmulgee,  the  party  encamped  a  day 
or  two  near  the  residence  of  Colonel  Hawkins,  an 
officer  of  merit  in  the  army  of  the  -Revolution,  much 
confided  in  by  General  Washington,  an  ex-member 
of  Congress  from  North  Carolina,  under  the  Consti 
tution,  and  then  Agent  of  the  United  States  for  the 

*  This  conveyed  the  tents,  baggage,  cooking  utensils,  and  dry  pro 
visions  of  the  travellers.  Yenison  and  turkeys  were  obtained  by  their 
rifles  and  purchase  from  the  Indians.  Corn  (maize)  for  the  horses,  was 
also  bought  of  the  latter. 


Indian  Customs.  4:5 

Creek  Indians.  This  venerable  functionary,  with  an 
extensive  general  library,  in  that  savage  country — 
still  cultivating  letters  and  science  —  did  much  to  in 
troduce  schools  and  the  mechanic  arts  among  his  red 
men,  by  whom  he  was  regarded  as  a  father.  He  gave 
me  interesting  information  respecting  the  superstitions, 
laws,  and  customs  of  the  Creeks — a  small  part  of  which, 
at  least,  seems  worthy  of  record.  In  the  administra 
tion  of  justice,  in  both  civil  and  criminal  cases,  wit 
nesses  wrere  sworn  by  their  respective  chiefs,  to  tell, 
first,  all  they  positively  knew  of  the  cases  under  trial, 
and  next  to  give  their  ~belief  in  respect  to  such  par 
ticulars  as  did  not  directly  strike  their  senses — circum 
stantial  evidence.  The  chief  of  each  then  submitted 
to  the  judges  (council)  from  his  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  witness,  how  much  of  the  testimony,  including  be 
lief ',  ought  to  be  received,  and  how  much  rejected. 
This  system  of  compurgation  and  purgation  was  said 
to  have  worked  admirably. 

But  few  incidents,  worth  being  remembered,  oc 
curred  during  this  tour  of  my  service  on  the  Lower 
Mississippi.  At  Baton  Rouge,  I  was  appointed  special 
judge  advocate  for  the  trial  of  a  commanding  officer 
(a  colonel)  of  considerable  ability,  for  gross  negligence 


46  In  the  Staff. 

under  the  heads  of  discipline  and  administration.  He 
had  several  times  before,  by  dilatory  pleas,  defied  or 
baffled  justice;  but  on  this  occasion  was  brought  to 
trial,  convicted,  and  censured. 

In  the  winter  of  1811-'12  I  was,  from  time  to  time, 
a  member  of  Brigadier-General  Hampton's  staff,  the 
commander  of  the  Southern  army,  and  much  in  New 
Orleans.  Whilst  in  the  city,  there  arrived,  Christmas 
eve,  from  Pittsburg,  in  a  cloud  of  smoke  and  steam, 
spitting  fire,  the  first  vessel  of  the  kind  that  ever 
stemmed  the  currents  of  the  mighty  Western  rivers. 
This  steamer  bore  the  name  of  a  volcano — Etna  or 
Vesuvius.  Descending,  she  scarcely  attracted  the  no 
tice  of  Creoles,  except  that  of  a  few,  who  thought  her 
a  flatboat,  of  unusual  size,  and  accidentally  on  fire. 
But  in  a  day  or  two,  returning  from  a  trip  made  to  the 
English  Turn,  fifteen  miles  below  the  city,  she  aroused 
the  curiosity  and  fears  of  the  natives  on  the  coast,  when 
all  broke  off  from  their  Christmas  sports,  and  many  on 
horseback,  without  saddles,  and  more  on  foot,  some 
without  hats,  flew  up  to  the  city,  with  "  bated  breath 
and  hair  on  end,"  to  learn  something  of  this  water 
monster  that  could  stem  a  current  of  six  miles  an  hour 
without  sails,  poles,  or  oars ! 


New  Orleans.  47 

The  prospect  of  war  being  again  faint,  I  spent, 
about  this  period,  some  hours  daily,  in  reviewing  my 
Domat,  Pothier,  etc.,  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  the 
bar  of  New  Orleans,  ruled  by  the  civil  law.  But, 
early  in  February  (the  mails  at  that  time  moved  very 
slowly)  news  arrived  that  Congress  had,  January  11, 
1812,  added  twenty-five  thousand  men  to  the  army. 
The  eyes  of  all  embryo  heroes  were  at  once  turned 
upon  Washington  and  the  British  North  American 
provinces.  A  declaration  of  hostilities  on  our  part, 
however,  was  still  withheld,  till,  at  length,  when  the 
time  for  action  seemed,  certainly,  to  be  at  hand, 
Brigadier-General  Hampton,  with  two  of  his  suite — 
Captain  Scott  and  Lieutenant  C.  K.  Gardner  (subse 
quently  a  staff  colonel  of  considerable  abilities  in  the 
field  and  in  the  bureau) — embarked,  May  20,  1812,  at 
New  Orleans  for  Washington,  via  Baltimore.  At  that 
season  a  more  stormy  and  tedious  passage,  between  the 
two  cities,  was,  probably,  never  known.  But  long  as 
it  was,  it  was  most  fortunate  for  the  ship  and  passen 
gers,  particularly  the  three  army  officers,  that  it  was 
not  lengthened  two  hours  more ;  for,  as  we  entered  the 
capes  of  Virginia,  we  had  to  pass  close  to  a  British 
frigate,  lying  off  and  on  the  bar.  Standing  on  our 


48  Sails  for  Washington. 

course,  in  less  than  an  hour  we  met  a  Hampton  pilot 
boat  under  a  cloud  of  canvas,  going  out  to  sea.  This 
was  the  20th  of  June,  and  that  boat,  it  was  subse 
quently  known,  was  the  bearer  of  despatches  from  the 
British  Minister  (Mr.  Mansfield)  at  Washington,  to 
say  that  Congress  had  declared  war,  two  days  before, 
against  his  country.  Of  this  fact  our  pilot,  shipped 
far  out  at  sea,  was,  of  course,  ignorant ;  and  the  master 
of  the  Hampton  boat,  on  a  trial  for  treason,  was  ac 
quitted  on  the  ground  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
war,  and  nothing  of  the  contents  of  the  despatch  he 
delivered  to  the  frigate. 

What  a  happy  escape  for  me !  Had  the  New  Or 
leans  ship  been  captured,  I  might,  as  a  prisoner,  have 
chafed  and  been  forgotten,  for  months — perhaps  years 
— in  a  British  prison ! 

Off  North  Point,  some  sixteen  miles  from  Balti 
more,  the  packet  got  aground,  when,  such  was  the  ex 
treme  impatience  for  news,  that  several  passengers,  I 
among  them,  landed,  to  walk,  or  to  find  our  way  to 
the  city  as  we  might. 


CHAPTEE    Y. 

WAR  DECLARED DOUBLE  PROMOTION MARCH  TO  CANADA. 

AT  the  end  of  the  fourth  mile  we  came  upon  a 
stated  militia  meeting,  the  commander  of  which  had 
just  received  the  Declaration  of  War,  the  Manifesto, 
etc.  Being  in  half  uniform,  and  fired  with  the  great 
news,  I  became  the  hero  of  the  occasion.  Mounted  on 
a  table,  I  was  made  to  read  the  Declaration  of  War  in 
the  midst  of  the  most  enthusiastic  shouts  and  cheers. 
This  earned  for  me  at  once  the  offer  of  a  seat  in  a 
double  gig  to  Baltimore.  But  to  me,  this,  the  first 
day  of  the  war,  came  very  near  being  also  the  last ; 
for  my  new  friend,  the  driver,  being  drunk  with  the 
sentiment  of  the  occasion,  or  the  potations  at  the  syl 
van  barbacue,  overturned  the  gig  twice,  each  time  at 
the  great  peril  of  limbs  and  necks. 


50  A  Lieutenant- Colonel. 

Thanks  to  my  stars  and  the  assumption  of  the 
reins,  Baltimore  was  reached,  in  the  dark,  June  21, 
1812,  where  I  (a  captain)  was  made  perfectly  happy 
by  learning  that  a  double  promotion  awaited  my 
arrival  at  Washington.  About  the  sixth  in  prepara 
tion  for  the  field,  among  the  old  officers  of  the  army, 
and  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  rank,. at  the  age  of  twenty- 
six,  with  a  hot  war  before  me — seemed  to  leave  nothing 
to  be  desired  but  the  continued  favor  of  Providence ! 

The  stay  of  the  travellers  was  but  short  in  "Wash 
ington.  And  here  terminated  the  official  connection 
of  a  respected  friend  and  commander,  with  the  auto- 
biographer. 

Major-General  Hampton  was  a  man  of  mark. 
Early  in  life  he  displayed  zeal  and  enterprise  under 
Sumter  and  Marion,  and  is  mentioned  with  distinction 
in  the  battle  of  Eutaw.  The  outlines  of  his  character 
were  sharp  and  well  defined.  In  mind  vigorous, 
prompt,  intrepid,  sagacious;  but  of  irritable  nerves; 
consequently,  often  harsh,  and  sometimes  unjust ;  but 
followed,  in  every  instance,  by  the  acknowledgment 
of  wrong,  or  the  evident  signs  of  contrition  and  re 
pentance.  Toward  the  humble  he  frequently  made 
more  substantial  amends  —  appropriate  benefits  — 


Scene  in  Washington.  51 

money,  clothes,  and  employments — at  the  promptings 
of  his  own  generous  nature.  Toward  the  autobiog- 
rapher,  who  enjoyed  his  inmost  confidence,  he  was 
uniformly  kind  and  considerate.  An  amusing  case  of 
quick  temper,  on  his  part,  followed  by  placability,  oc 
curred  at. this  visit  to  Washington. 

Immediately  preceding  there  had  been  quite  an 
unpleasant  official  correspondence  between  General 
Hampton  and  Dr.  Eustis,  Secretary  of  "War.  Never 
theless,  mere  coolness  between  the  parties  did  not 
absolve  the  former  from  the  official  propriety  of  calling 
on  the  latter.  Accordingly,  the  general,  accompanied 
by  me,  made  an  early  visit  to  the  War  Office.  His 
name  was  no  sooner  announced  than  the  Secretary 
flew  to  the  door,  with  hand  extended,  to  receive  the 
general.  The  latter  bowed,  but  to  my  great  surprise, 
crossed  his  hands  behind  him.  Nevertheless  an  official 
conversation  ensued,  after  the  parties*  were  seated  in 
the  office,  which,  successively  melted  into  a  pleasant, 
and  then  a  friendly  character.  The  interview  lasted 
perhaps  an  hour.  The  Secretary  bowed  the  general 
to  the  door,  when  the  latter  turned,  and  offered  both 
his  hands.  It  was  now  the  Secretary's  turn  to  show  a 
dignified  resentment,  and,  accordingly,  he  exactly  re- 


52  Set  to  Prepare  Troops. 

taliated  the  crossing  of  hands  behind !  But  this  was 
now  very  differently  regarded ;  for  Hampton  was  not 
disposed  to  treat  the  matter  as  a  game  of  quits.  A 
messenger  was  despatched  for  General  D.  R.  Wil 
liams,*  M.  C.  from  South  Carolina ;  pistols  were  pro 
cured,  a  challenge  indited,  and  everything  made 
ready,  on  one  side,  for  a  deadly  combat — if  necessary. 
Dr.  Eustis  chose,  as  his  friend,  on  the  occasion,  Mr. 
Secretary  Hamilton  (J^avy  Department),  another  South 
Carolinian.  These  very  judicious  friends,  looking  to 
the  advanced  ages  of  the  parties,  and  the  ludicrous 
character  of  the  quarrel,  soon  arranged  that  Hampton 
should,  the  next  morning,  present  himself  at  the  "War 
Office  door,  to  be  met  there  by  Dr.  Eustis,  with  both 
hands  extended,  etc.,  in  the  presence  of  the  same  spec 
tators — the  autobiographer,  and  the  chief  clerk  of  the 
War  Department ! 

The  new  lidutenant-colonel  was  soon  ordered  to. 
Philadelphia,  to  collect  the  companies  of  the  regiment 
as  fast  as  recruited,  and  to  prepare  them  for  the  field. 
A  camp  of  instruction  was  formed, — but  the  recruiting 

*  It  is  impossible  to  name  this  most  excellent  man,  without  adding 
terms  of  admiration,  love,  and  respect — notwithstanding  a  foolish  speech 
(the  only  one  of  the  sort  he  ever  made)  that  gave  him,  for  the  moment, 
*i»e  sobriquet  of  "  thunder-and-liglitning  Williams." 


Camp  near  Philadelphia.  53 

advanced  slowly.  Early  in  September  the  impatience 
of  this  officer  could  wait  no  longer,  and  he  obtained, 
by  solicitation,  orders  to  proceed  to  Niagara. 

To  perverted  minds,  u  big  wars  make  ambition 
virtue ; "  but  let  the  lovers  of  war  look  upon,  after  a 
general  action,  the  dead  and  the  dying  on  the  field, 
and  visit  the  hospitals.  ~No  doubt  some  wars  are 
necessary,  as  was  that  of  1812,  on  our  part ;  and  the 
constitutional  and  moral  right,  on  the  part  of  the 
Federal  Union,  of  putting  down  the  existing  rebellion 
— if  deemed  expedient — is  indisputable.  Nevertheless, 
I  cannot  but  sigh,  with  Cowper — 

"  For  a  lodge  in  some  vast  wilderness, 
Some  boundless  continuity  of  shade, 
Where  rumor    ****** 
Of  unsuccessful  or  successful  war, 
Might  never  reach  me  more." 

Dryden,  too,  in  a  dedication  to  the  Duke  of  Or- 
mond,  has  expressed  a  lively  abhorrence  for  "  those 
athletic  brutes,  whom,  undeservedly,  we  call  heroes," 
and  adds — "  cursed  be  the  poet  who  first  honored  with 
the  name,  a  mere  Ajax — a  man-killing  idiot." 


CHAPTEE    VI. 

NIAGABA   FEONTIEE CAPTURE   OF    WAB   VESSELS BATTLE 

OF    QUEENSTOWN A   PBISONEB   OF    WAE PAEOLED. 

Is  this  temper  of  mind,  the  battles  and  sieges  of  the 
following  narrative  are  not  likely  to  be  much  elabo 
rated;  to  be  written  at  the  charging  step  or  to  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet.  How  different  were  the  feel 
ings  of  the  young  lieutenant-colonel,  on  reporting  to 
Brigadier-General  Alexander  Smyth,*  near  Buffalo, 
October  4,  1812. 

*  This  officer,  a  native  of  Ireland,  was  a  respectable  member  of  the 
southwestern  bar  of  Virginia,  when  made,  in  1808,  colonel  of  the  new 
rifle  regiment.  He  had  long  been  a  laborious  and  useful  member  of  the 
legislature,  and  for  several  years  before  his  death  maintained  the  same 
character  hi  Congress.  As  a  general,  though  well  read,  brave,  and  hon 
orable,  he  showed  no  talent  for  command,  and  made  himself  ridiculous  on 
the  Niagara  frontier,  by  his  proclamations  calling  for  volunteers.  His 


Assists  in  a  Naval  Enterprise.  55 

I  was  sent  immediately  to  cover  the  temporary 
yard,  behind  Squaw  Island,  a  little  below  Black  Rock, 
where  Lieutenant  Elliott,  of  the  navy,  was  fitting  up 
certain  lake  craft  for  war  purposes.  This  was  the  be 
ginning  of  the  squadron  that  won,  under  Commodore 
Perry,  the  following  year,  the  splendid  victory  on  Lake 
Erie.  In  a  few  days  two  British  war  vessels  were  dis- 
covjered  early  one  morning  at.  anchor  under  the  guns 
of  Fort  Erie,  opposite  to  the  harbor  of  Buffalo.  Lieu 
tenant  Elliott  conceived  the  idea  of  capturing  them, 
by  surprise  and  boarding,  just  before  daylight  the  fol 
lowing  morning,  and  applied  to  the  lieutenant-colonel 
for  a  detachment  of  troops  to  aid  in  the  enterprise. 
Captain  Nathan  Towson,  afterward  much  distinguish 
ed,  was  accordingly  detailed  for  that  service,  seconded 
by  Adjutant  Roach,  subsequently  mayor  of  Philadel 
phia.  He  (Towson)  gallantly  carried  and  saved  the 
Caledonia,  and  Lieutenant  Elliott  carried  the  Detroit, 
formerly  the  United  States'  Brig  Adams,  surrendered 
by  Hull.  There  being  no  wind,  the  latter  vessel  was 
swept  by  the  current  down  the  Niagara,  and  got 
aground  on  the  British  side  of  Squaw  Island,  where 

certificate  on  honor,  late  in  life,  that  he  had  discovered  the  Key  to  the 
Apocalypse,  was  another  extraordinary  blunder. 


56  Success — Descends  the  Ri/ver. 

she  was  abandoned  by  her  captors,  taken  possession  of 
by  the  enemy,  and  became  the  subject  of  a  sharp  con 
test  during  the  day,  between  detachments  of  troops 
from  both  sides  of  the  river.  Finally  she  was  burned 
by  the  Americans,  as  she  could  not  be  got  afloat.  This 
was  a  busy  day  (October  8)  with  the  lieutenant-colonel, 
both  on  the  island  and  mainland,  and  the  first  time 
that  he  was  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 

Three  days  later  he  moved  down  the  river,  under 
orders  to  report  to  Major-General  Yan  Rensselaer, 
the  patroon  of  Albany,  who  commanded  a  camp  at 
Lewiston,  opposite  to  Queenstown,  of  some  1,500  vol 
unteers,  and  three  small  detachments  of  regulars  under 
Lieutenant-Colonels  Fenwick  and  Christie,  and  Major 
Mullany. 

Late  in  the  evening  of  the  12th,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Scott,  learning,  accidentally,  at  Schlosser,  that  a  hos 
tile  movement  was  on  foot  from  Lewiston,  marched 
down  in  the  night  to  claim  for  his  battalion  a  part  in 
the  expedition.  He  was  refused,  because  all  arrange 
ments  were  made  and  instructions  given,  placing  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Yan  Kensselaer,  the  chief  of  the  gen 
eral's  staff,  at  the  head  of  the  movement,  and  I,  his 


Battle  of  Queenstown.  57 

senior,  would  not  serve  under  any  junior,*  although 
Fenwick,  the  senior  of  the  three,  had  waived  his  rank. 
Christie  was  Scott's  junior.  As  to  the  battalion  of  the 
latter,  there  were  no  boats  fit  for  artillery  carriages, 
and,  indeed,  as  it  turned  out,  not  enough  for  the  in 
fantry  previously  designated. 

The  object  of  the  expedition  was  to  storm  the 
heights  of  Queenstown,  occupied  by  a  small  garrison 
of  the  49th  British  Foot,  supporfed  by  hosts  of  Indians, 
and  to  hold  the  same  as  a  door  of  entrance  for  the  large 
invading  army  (of  volunteers)  that  was  soon  to  follow. 
In  crossing,  about  daylight,  the  boats  had  to  sustain  a 
direct  plunging  fire  from  the  battery  on  the  heights, 
and  also  the  flaiik^  fire  of  several  forts  near  the  village, 
below.  Yan  Rensselaer,  badly  wounded,  scarcely  stood 
on  his  feet  at  the  point  of  landing ;  Fenwick's  boat, 
perforated  with  shots  and  half  filled  with  water,  drifted 
to  the  enemy's  shore,  when  he,  desperately  wounded, 

*  This  refusal  was  remembered  by  Colonel  Van  Kensselaer  in  the  Whig 
Convention  that  met  at  Harrisburg  in  November,  1839,  when  Harrison, 
Clay,  and  Scott  were  in  nomination  for  the  presidency,  and  it  was  also  re 
membered  that  Scott  had,  in  January,  1838,  arrested  the  colonel's  son  at 
Schlosser,  while  attempting  to  invade  Canada  at  the  head  of  a  body  of 
Americans.  The  New  York  delegation  would  have  been  unanimous  for 
Scott  but  for  the  colonel. 
3* 


58  Battle  of  Queenstown. 

was  taken  out  with  a  detachment  of  men  prisoners  of 
war.  Christie's  boat  was  also  maltreated  and  he  slight 
ly  wounded  in  the  attempt  to  cross.*  And  now  it  was 
that  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott — whose  light  batteries, 
commanded  by  Captains  Towson  and  Barker,  had  par 
tially  diverted  the  enemy's  fire  from  our  boats — was 
permitted,  at  his  repeated  solicitation,  to  cross  over 
and  take  command  of  our  forces  in  conflict  with  the 
enemy.  Fortunately;  he  made  the  passage,  accom 
panied  only  by  Adjutant  Roach,  of  his  battalion,  with 
but  little  hurt  or  damage.  The  heights  and  battery 
had  been  previously  carried  by  detachments  of  the  6th 
Infantry,  under  Captain  Machesney ;  of  the  13th,  un 
der  Captains  Wool,  Armstrong,  Ogilvie,  and  Malcomb ; 
one  of  the  23d,  under  Major  Mullany ;  a  company 
of  light  artillery,  under  Captain  James  Gibson,  sup 
ported  by  Lieutenant  Thomas  B.  Randolph,  with  one 
six-pounder  and  some  New  York  militia.  Captain 
Wool  had  been  disabled  by  a  wound,  in  ascending  the 
heights.  Captain  J.  G.  Totten,  of  the  Engineers,  was 
also  with  the  troops,  qualified  and  ready  for  any  duty 
that  might  fall  to  him.  It  was  a  little  before  this  time 

*  He,  however,  subsequently  joined  Scott,  and  shared  with  him  the 
fortunes  of  the  day. 


Battle  of  Queenstown.  59 

that  Major-General  Brock,  Lieutenant-Govern  or  of 
Upper  Canada,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Province, 
Colonel  McDonald,  fell  at  the  foot  of  the  heights, 
while  gallantly  leading  up  from  the  mouth  of  the 
river  a  body  of  York  volunteers,  with  a  number  of 
additional  Indians. 

A  pause  ensued.  The  lieutenant-colonel  rapidly 
reconnoitred  the  heights;  took  up  a  position  for  de 
fence  until  joined  by  the  great  body  of  the  forces  re 
maining  in  camp  at  Lewiston ;  introduced  himself  and 
adjutant  to  his  line  of  battle,  and  attempted  to  unspike 
the  guns  the  enemy  had  left  in  the  captured  battery. 
While  directing  the  latter  operation  the  enemy's  col 
lected  forces  suddenly  drove  in  our  pickets,  when  regu 
lars,  volunteers,  and  Indians  rushed  upon  our  line  of 
battle,  which,  intimidated,  began  to  face  about,  and, 
in  a  moment  would  have  been  in  full  retreat,  but  that 
the  lieutenant-colonel,  running  back  from  the  battery, 
by  storming  and  a  free  use  of  the  sword,  brought  his 
whole  line  to  face  the  enemy,  and,  in  a  charge,  to  drive 
him  beyond  reach.  After  an  interval,  a  second  attack 
was  made  with  a  like  result.  Returning  again  to  the 
chosen  position  our  forces  were  reformed,  and  stood 
impatiently  awaiting  the  arrival  of  reinforcements 


60  Battle  of  Queenstown. 

from  the  other  side  of  the  river ;  for  the  approach  of 
a  fresh  column  of  the  enemy  from  below  could  be 
plainly  seen,  under,  as  it  proved,  Brigadier-General 
Sheaffe,  on  whom  had  devolved  all  the  public  func 
tions  of  Brock.  The  new  reinforcement  of  the  enemy 
being  also  perceived  by  Major-General  Yan  Rensse- 
laer,  he  wrote  to  our  commander  on  the  Canada  side : 
"I  have  passed  through  my  camp.  Not  a  regiment, 
not  a  company  is  willing  to  join  you.  Save  yourselves 
by  a  retreat,  if  you  can.  Boats  shall  be  sent  to  receive 
you." 

The  disgrace  of  Hull's  recent  surrender  was  deeply 
felt  by  all  Americans.  Those  on  Queenstown  Heights, 
at  the  instance  of  their  youthful  commander,  resolved, 
though  with  but  little  hope  of  success,  to  sustain  the 
shock  of  the  enemy,  when,  if  beaten,  the  survivors 
might  still  seek  an  escape  by  means  of  the  promised 
boats.  The  British  commander  approached  with  an 
awful  tedio'usness,  evidently  supposing  the  small  body 
in  his  view  to  be  merely  the  advance  guard  of  the 
Americans.  At  length  the  conflict  came.  The  firings, 
on  both  sides,  were  deadly,  and  then  followed  a  partial 
clash  of  bayonets.  The  Americans,  by  the  force  of 
overwhelming  numbers  were  pushed  from  the  heights 


Flags  of  T<>*uce.  61 

toward  the  river,  aiding  themselves,  in  the  steep  de 
scent,  by  means  of  brushwood  and  yielding  saplings. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-nine  regulars,  out  of  six  hun 
dred  that  had  embarked  in  the  morning,  and  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty-odd  volunteers,*  out  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty,  reached  the  margin  of  the  river.  Here  all  were 
seized  with  despair.  ~No  boats  had  arrived !  Indeed,  but 
a  few  that  were  serviceable  remained,  and  General  Yan 
Rensselaer  could  not  force  nor  bribe  oarsmen  enough, 
among  his  men,  to  take  one  of  them  to  their  forlorn 
countrymen  !  A  surrender  was  inevitable.  There  was 
no  time  to  lose.  The  enemy  were  gradually  letting 
themselves  down  the  precipice,  which  partially  covered 
the  Americans,  near  enough  to  render  their  fire  effec 
tive. 

Two  bearers  of  flags  of  truce  had  been  despatched 
in  succession  to  the  British  commander,  but  there  was 
no  return,  and  no  cessation  of  hostilities.  It  was  con- 

*  This  body  of  men,  under  Brigadier-General  Wadsworth,  supported 
by  Colonel  Stranahan,  behaved  with  gallantry  throughout  the  day.  When 
Scott  assumed  the  command  he  did  not  know  that  there  was  a  general 
officer  on  the  ground.  The  latter,  in  plain  clothes,  modestly  made  his 
rank  known,  and  insisted  on  supporting  Scott,  which  he  did,  with  zeal  and 
valor,  in  every  combat.  This  Wadsworth  (William)  and  his  brother, 
James,  were  the  great  farmers  on  the  Genesee  Flats. 


62  Surrender. 

eluded  that  they  had  been  killed  or  captured  by  the 
Indians.  Captains  Totten  and  Gibson  each  volunteered 
to  make  a  third  attempt,  but  as  to  bear  a  flag  had  be 
come  a  forlorn  service,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott  as 
sumed  the  duty  to  himself,  and  took  with  him  his 
gallant  comrades,  Totten  and  Gibson.  Being  uncom 
monly  tall  and  in  a  splendid  uniform,  it  was  thought 
his  chance  of  being  respected  by  the  savages,  who  were 
under  but  little  control,  the  best.  The  party  had  to 
pass  down  along  the  margin  of  the  river  some  hun 
dreds  of  yards  to  find  an  easy  ascent.  Several  shots 
had  been  fired  at  them,  before  they  turned  up  to  the 
left,  when  two  Indians  (Captain  Jacobs  and  young 
Brant,  of  whom  more  in  the  sequel),  after  firing,  sprang 
from  a  covert  and  seized  the  party.  A  deadly  combat 
impended ;  but  a  detachment  of  regulars,  headed  by  an 
officer,  rushed  to  the  rescue,  and  conducted  the  flag  to 
the  British  commander,  General  Sheaife.  His  first 
and  second  attempts  to  stop  the  Indian  fire  on  the 
Americans  under  the  precipice  proving  unsuccessful, 
Lieutenant  -  Colonel  Scott  demanded  to  be  escorted 
back  to  his  countrymen,  that  he  might  share  their  fate. 
He  was  prevailed  upon  to  await  another  trial,  which 
succeeding,  a  formal  surrender  was  made  on  terms 


Demagogues  in  the   Volunteers.  63 

honorable  to  all  parties,  and  the  prisoners  were  put  in 
march  for  the  village  of  Newark  (since  Niagara),  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  painful  than  the 
position  of  Major-General  Stephen  Yan  Bensselaer* 
during  the  day  of  Queenstown.  A  citizen  of  undoubt 
ed  patriotism  and  valor,  with  a  weight  of  moral  char 
acter  very  rare — but  without  military  experience — he 
found  himself  helpless  in  his  camp,  by  the  machina 
tions  in  the  ranks  of  demagogues  opposed  to  the  Ad 
ministration  and  the  war.  These  vermin,  who  infest 
all  republics,  boastful  enough  at  home,  no  sooner 
found  themselves  in  sight  of  the  enemy  than  they 
discovered  thai  the  militia  of  the  United  States  could 
not  be  constitutionally  marched  into  a  foreign  coun 
try  If  This  pleasant  doctrine  to  the  faint  hearted, 
soon  found  almost  universal  favor.  The  pure-minded 

*  But  distantly,  if  at  all,  related  to  the  colonel,  chief  of  his  staff. 

f  What  so  perverse  and  mischievous  as  party  frenzy  in  a  republic !  I 
was  made  a  prisoner  at  Queenstown,  in  a  lawful  and  necessary  war,  because 
certain  militia  would  not  cross  the  Niagara  to  my  rescue.  In  the  winters 
of  1837-'8,  and  1838-'9,  it  cost  me  my  utmost  exertions,  physical  and 
mental,  all  along  the  British  frontiers,  from  Lake  Huron  to  Aroostook — to 
prevent  our  people  from  making  uninvited,  unlawful,  and  preposterous  in 
vasions  of  the  conterminous  Provinces. 


64  Prisoner  of  War. 

general  took  an  early  opportunity  of  retiring  from  the 
command  of  such  troops. 

On  reaching  the  village  of  Newark,  the  American 
officers  were  lodged  in  a  small  inn  after  being  divested 
of  their  swords,  which  were  temporarily  stacked  under 
the  staircase  in  the  entry.  A  strong  guard  was  at 
hand,  and  sentries  were  posted.  In  a  few  minutes  a 
servant  said  that  there  were  persons  at  the  front  door 
who  desired  to  see  the  tall  American.  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Scott,  passing  through  several  doors,  found,  on 
reaching  the  entry,  that  his  visitors  were  the  same  two 
Indians  met  by  him  some  hours  before  when  bearing 
the  flag  of  truce.  Captain  Jacobs,  one  of  them,  a  man 
of  uncommon  stature  and  power,  speaking  but  little 
English  was  interpreted  by  his  companion,  young 
Brant,  the  life  of  whose  father  has  been  published  by 
the  late  W.  L.  Stone,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  in  two  vol 
umes,  octavo,  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of 
the  French  War,  as  called  in  America,  but  known  in 
Europe  as  the  Seven  Years'  War  ; — to  the  W-ar  of 
American  Independence  ;  and  to  many  subsequent 
wars  between  the  United  States  and  the  Northwest 
Indians,  as  well  as  to  the  last  war  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain. 


A  Desperate  Adventure.  65 

The  professed  object  of  these  Indians  was  to  see  if 
they  had  not  in  the  several  combats  of  the  day  hit  the 
prisoner  before  them — each  alleging  that  he  had  de 
liberately  fired  at  him  three  or  four  times  from  no 
great  distance.  Their  design,  however,  was  no  doubt 
sinister.  All  the  surviving  Indians  were  exceedingly 
exasperated  at  the  severe  loss  their  tribes  had  just 
sustained.  Jacobs,  accordingly,  to  begin  the  affray, 
seized  the  prisoner  rudely  by  the  arm  and  attempted 
to  turn  him  round  to  examine  his  back.  The  savage 
was  indignantly  thrown  against  the  wall,  when  both 
assailants,  placing  their  hands  on  their  knives  and 
hatchets,  exclaimed  —  ""We  kill  you  now!"  It  was 
an  awful  moment  for  the  assailed.  There  was  no 
witness  nor  help  at  hand.  The  sentinel  near  the  door, 
who  had  improperly  admitted,  the  Indians,  was  not 
in  view,  and  perhaps  indifferent  as  to  consequences. 
God  and  his  own  stout  heart  must  save  the  American 
from  instant  butchery.  With  one  mighty  spring  he 
seized  the  hilt  of  a  sword  with  an  iron  scabbard  (easily 
drawn),  then  springing  back  he  faced  the  enemy  and 
occupied  the  narrow  space  between  the  staircase  and 
the  opposite  wall,  but  far  enough  advanced  to  allow  a 
free  use  of  his  sword  over  the  depressed  balustrade. 


66  Rescue — General  Sheaffe. 

In  tliis  strong  position  he  could  not  be  attacked  by  two 
assailants  at  once,  and  he  was  sure  to  fell  the  foremost, 
though  he  might  be  assassinated  by  the  second  before 
he  could  recover  his  sword.  At  this  critical  moment 
— the  parties  standing  at  bay  but  in  act  to  strike — 
Captain  Coffin,  nephew  and  aide-de-camp  of  General 
Sheaffe,  entered  to  conduct  some  of  the  prisoners  to 
the  general's  quarters  where  they  were  invited  to  dine. 
The  scene  spoke  for  itself.  The  captain  instantly  seized 
Jacobs  by  the  collar  with  one  hand,  holding  a  cocked 
pistol  in  the  other.  Both  Indians,  with  their  weapons, 
now  turned  upon  him,  and  the  American  closed  in  to 
slay  the  one  left  by  the  pistol.  The  gallant  aide-de 
camp  had  just  time  to  call  out — the  guard!  when  a 
sergeant  and  squad  rushed  in  and  marched  off  the 
savages  as  prisoners.  _  It  required  a  strong  escort  to 
conduct  the  dinner  guests  in  safety  to  and  from  the 
general's  quarters,  for  the  village  swarmed  with  exas 
perated  Indians. 

At  table,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott  learned  from 
General  Sheaffe  himself,  that  he  was  a  native  of  Bos 
ton,  the  son  of  a  civil  em/ploye  of  the  crown; — that 
adopted,  when  a  boy,  by  Lord  Percy  (afterward  Duke 
of  Northumberland),  then  colonel  of  the  42d  Foot,  he 


Volunteers  Paroled —  Gen.  Broetfs  Funeral.     67 

was  sent  to  England  for  his  education,  and  that  the 
duke  continued  his  patron  through  his  whole  military 
career.  The  general  added,  that  although  he  had 
never  owed  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  yet  anx 
ious  to  avoid  engaging  in  hostilities  with  Americans, 
his  countrymen  by  birth,  he  had  early  requested  to 
be  sent  to  some  other  theatre  of  war.  For  the  Battle 
of  Queenstown  he  was  made  a  major-general  and 
baronet,  and  as  soon  as  practicable  recalled  to  Europe. 

All  volunteer  officers  and  men,  among  the  Ameri 
can  prisoners,  were  paroled  and  sent  home.  The  regu 
lars  of  every  rank  were  retained  and  embarked  for 
Quebec.  Before  sailing,  the  remains  of  General  Brock 
were  buried  with  all  the  honors  of  war,  in  a  bastion  of 
Fort  George,  at  the  upper  edge  of  Newark.  Lieuten 
ant-Colonel  Scott,  out  of  respect  for  the  very  high  char 
acter  of  the  deceased,  sent  over  a  request  to  the  Ameri 
can  fort  (Niagara)  opposite,  to  fire  minute  guns  during 
the  British  solemnities,  and  thus  there  was  a  long-con 
tinued  roar  of  American  and  British  cannon  in  honor 
of  a  fallen  hero. 

In  the  following  campaign  (1813),  Fort  George  was 
captured  by  the  autobiographer,  then  colonel,  and  en 
larged,  in  part,  by  him,  according  to  a  plan  of  the  engi- 


68  Fort  George. 

neer,  Captain  Totten.  Great  care  was  taken  by  both 
not  to  disturb  the  bastion  in  which  the  remains  of  Gen 
eral  Brock  lay  interred.  A  word  more,  in  connection 
with  the  foregoing,  may,  perhaps,  be  pardoned.  So  late 
as  1860,  a  resident  of  New  Jersey  and  the  Highlands 
of  New  York  (W.  E.  Baldwin,  Esq.),  presented  to  the 
autobiographer  the  identical  pistols  (as  is  well  estab 
lished  by  respectable  evidence)  that  were  in  General 
Brock's  holsters  at  the*  time  of  his  fall.  His  body, 
partly  under  his  dead  horse,  was,  for  a  time,  in  the 
possession  of  the  Americans.  (Arms  of  every  kind, 
gorgets,  sashes,  and  spurs  are  lawful  trophies  of  war.) 


CHAPTER   VII... 

KINGSTON PEESCOTT MONTREAL QUEBEC SAILED   FOE 

HOME — GUT   OF   CANSO WASHINGTON. 

THE  regular  prisoners  passed  at  Kingston  from  ves 
sels  of  war  to  rowboats,  and  under  a  strong  guard 
descended  the  St.  Lawrence,  marching  around  the 
more  dangerous  rapids.*  At  Prescott,  opposite  to 

*  A  singular  rudeness  was  experienced  in  passing  around  the  Long 
Saut,  on  the  edge  of  a  Caledonian  settlement — all  Catholics.  Their  priest, 
attracted  by  the  name  and  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott,  reproached 
him  severely  as  a  traitor  to  George  III.  Perceiving  his  sacerdotal  charac 
ter,  a  condescending  explanation  and  reply  was  given,  without  effect.  In 
1827,  Major-General  Scott  being  at  Buffalo,  on  board  of  a  government 
steamer  about  to  ascend  the  lakes,  her  master  asked  permission  to  re 
ceive  in  the  cabin,  for  his  benefit,  a  bishop  and  two  priests.  It  was  grant 
ed.  General  Scott  at  once  discovered  in  the  prelate  his  reviler  at  the  Long 
Saut.  Suppressing  the  discovery  he  invited  the  party  to  his  separate 
table,  and  did  his  best  to  overwhelm  the  Right  Reverend  gentleman  with 
hospitality  and  courtesy — a  Christian's  revenge. 


70       Prescott — Noble   Coquet  of  a  Prvvateer. 

Ogdensburg,  I  was  taken  into  the  quarters  of  the  com 
mander  of  the  post,  Colonel  Pearson,  who  had  just 
arrived  from  England.  Expecting  a  night  attack  by 
the  militia,  at  Ogdensburg,  opposite,  the  commander 
slept  but  little,  and  that  on  the  prisoner's  pallet — two 
blankets  and  a  cloak,  Pearson's  own  baggage  not 
being  up.  No  one  exceeded  this  gallant  officer  in 
courtesy  and  amiability.  To  soothe  his  prisoner,  de 
pressed  by  his  condition,  and  disappointed  at  not  being 
rescued  by  the  militia  at  Ogdensburg,  he  told  the  story 
of  his  own  recent  capture  and  noble  treatment  by  an 
American  privateer.  On  board  of  a  transport  ship, 
with  his  young  wife,  he  fell  in  with  the ,  Cap 
tain  ,  and  being  without  heavy  guns,  surren 
dered  after  the  first  fire.  Captain  ,  with  a 

party,  boarded  the  prize,  when  learning  that  Mrs. 
Pearson  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  premature  labor, 
he  placed  a  sentinel  at  the  cabin  door,  and  left  to  the 
colonel  an  absolute  control  over  all  within  it — giving 
such  aid  as  was  called  for.  The  colonel  was  also  de 
sired  to  mark  everything  that  belonged  to  him,  with 
his  name,  and  assured  that  all  should  be  held  sacred 
as  private  property.  In  sight  of  an  American  port, 
the  prize  was  recaptured  and  taken  to  Halifax,  where 


Courtesies  and  Discourtesies.  71 

the  colonel  acquitted  himself  of  the  debt  of  liberality 
by  his  conduct  to  the  American  prize  crew.* 

The  Queenstown  prisoners  experienced  much  cour 
tesy  from  other  British  commanders :  from  the  old  and 
infirm  Colonel  Leftbridge,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the 
guard  in  the  boats  down  to  Montreal;  from  Major- 
General  Glasgow,  the  commander  of  Quebec,  a  fine  old 
soldier,  and  others.  The  remarkable  exception  was  in 
the  Governor-General  of  the  Provinces — Lieuten ant- 
General,  Sir  George  Prevost — who,  being  of  an  Ameri 
can  family,  behaved  like  a  renegade  in  causing  the 
prisoners  to  be  marched,  on  their  arrival  at  Montreal, 
along  the  front  of  its  garrison,  drawn  up  in  line  of  bat 
tle,  and  by  slights  and  neglects  which  excited  contempt 
and  loathing.  As  a  soldier,  he  was  signally  disgraced, 
subsequently,  at  Sackett's  Harbor  and  Plattsburg. 

A  scene  occurred,  at  Quebec,  respecting  the  Ameri 
can  prisoners,  which  led  to  a  correspondence,  to  legis 
lation,  and  other  results  of  great  national  interest  and 
importance.  The  story,  though  told  in  Mansfield's 

*  At  the  Battle  of  Chippewa,  in  1814,  Colonel  Pearson  commanded  the 
right  wing  of  the  British  army,  and  subsequently  was,  as  a  general  officer, 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Gibraltar.  He,  up  to  his  death,  remained  the  friend 
of  his  prisoner  (for  a  night)  at  Prescott. 


72  Sequestration  of  Prisoners. 

well-written  life  of  the  autobiographer,  on  notes  and 
documents  supplied  by  the  latter,  is  necessarily  repro 
duced  in  this  place,  but  with  some  corrections  and 
additions. 

The  Americans  being,  November  20,  1812,  paroled 
and  embarked  for  Boston,  a  commission  of  several 
persons  came  on  board,  under  the  instructions  of  Sir 
George  Prevost  to  sequester  and  to  retain,  as  traitors, 
every  prisoner,  who,  judging  by  speech  or  other  evi 
dence,  might  appear  to  have  been  born  a  British  sub 
ject.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott  being  engaged  in  the 
cabin,  heard  a  commotion  on  deck,  when  hurrying  up, 
he  found  that  twenty-odd  of  his  men  had  already  been 
selected  for  trial,  and  all  much  grieved  and  alarmed. 
He  instantly  stopped  further  examinations  by  com 
manding  absolute  silence  on  the  part  of  the  prisoners ; 
had  an  altercation  with  the  commissioners ;  explained 
to  the  sequestered  the  reciprocal  obligation  of  allegi 
ance  and  protection;  assured  them  that  the  United 
States'  Government  would  not  fail  to  look  to  their 
safety,  and  in  case  of  their  punishment,  as  was  threat 
ened,  to  retaliate  amply.  Not  another  man  was  added 
to  those  previously  selected,  then,  nor  on  any  subsequent 
occasion. 


Hostages  and  Retaliation.  73 

To  finish  this  story  without  regard  to  chronology : 
the  lieutenant-colonel  arrived  at  Washington  (where 
he  found  himself  exchanged)  in  January,  1813,  on  the 
evening  of  a  reception  at  the  President's.  The  warm 
greeting  given  him  was  scarcely  over,  when  he,  with 
some  animation,  mentioned  to  the  President  the  case 
of  the  sequestered  prisoners.  Several  members  of  Con 
gress  eagerly  listened  to  the  narrative,  when  instruc 
tions  were  given  to  report  the  whple  case,  officially,  to 
the  Secretary  of  "War.  Hence  the  following  letter, 
dated  January  13,  1813  : 

Lieutenant- Colonel  Scott  to  the  Secretary  of  War.* 
"Sm: 

"  I  think  it  my  duty  to  lay  "before  the  Department 
that,  on  the  arrival  at  Quebec  of  the  American  prison 
ers  of  war  surrendered  at  Queenstown,  they  were  mus 
tered  and  examined  by  British  officers  appointed  to 
that  duty,  and  every  native-born  of  the  United  King 
doms  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  sequestered,  and 
sent  on  board  a  ship  of  war  then  in  the  harbor.  The 
vessel  in  a  few  days  thereafter  sailed  for  England,  with 

*  American  State  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  634,  as  published  under  an  act 
of  Congress. 

4 


74  Hostages  and  Retaliation. 

these  prisoners  on  board.  Between  fifteen  and  twen 
ty  *  were  thus  taken  from  us,  natives  of  Ireland,  sev 
eral  of  whom  were  known  by  their  platoon  officers  to 
be  naturalized  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  others 
to  have  been  long  residents  within  the  same.  One  in 
particular,  whose  name  has  escaped  me,  besides  having 
complied  with  all  the  conditions  of  our  naturalization 
laws,  was  represented  by  his  officers  to  have  left  a  wife 
and  five  children,  all  of  them  born  within  the  State  of 
!N~ew  York. 

"  I  distinctly  understood,  as  well  from  the  officers 
who  came  on  board  the  prison  ship  for  the  above  pur 
poses,  as  from  others  with  whom  I  remonstrated  on 
this  subject,  that  it  was  the  determination  of  the  Brit 
ish  Government,  as  expressed  through  Sir  George  Pre- 
vost,  to  punish  every  man  whom  it  might  subject  to  its 
power,  found  in  arms  against  the  British  king  con 
trary  to  his  native  allegiance." 

This  report  was  promptly  communicated  to  Con 
gress,  which,  followed  up  by  the  solicitations  of  the 
writer,  led  to  the  passage  of  the  act,  March  3,  1813, 

*  There  were,  in  fact,  twenty-three,  as  stated  in  the  text. 


Hostages  and  Retaliation.  75 

"vesting  in  the  President  of  the  United  States  the 
power  of  retaliation  in  certain  cases." 

It  so  chanced  that  in  a  few  months  the  writer  of 
that  report,  at  the  capture  of  Fort  George  (May  27), 
made  a  great  number  of  prisoners,  when,  as  adjutant- 
general  and  chief  of  the  staff,  with  the  rank  of  colonel, 
he  selected  and  confined  an  equal  number  of  the  cap 
tured  Englishmen,  to  abide  the  fate  of  the  Americans 
sent  to  England  for  trial. 

Earl  Bathurst  to  Sir  George  Prevost.* 

"  DOWNING  STREET,  August  12,  1813. 

"  SIR: 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  of  receiving  your  despatch 
No.  66,  of  the  6th  of  June,  enclosing  a  letter  addressed 
to  your  excellency  by  Major-General  Dearborn.  In 
this  letter  it  is  stated,  that  the  American  commissary 
of  prisoners  in  London,  had  made  it  known  to  his  Gov 
ernment  that  twenty-three  soldiers  of  the  1st,  6th,  and 
13th  regiments  of  United  States  infantry,  made  prison 
ers,  had  been  sent  to  England  and  held  in  close  con 
finement  as  British  subjects ;  and  that  Major-General 
Dearborn  had  received  instructions  from  his  Govern- 

*  American  State  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  640,  641. 


76  Hostages  and  Retaliation. 

merit  to  put  into  close  confinement  twenty-three  Brit 
ish  soldiers,  to  be  kept  as  hostages  for  the  safe-keeping 
and  restoration,  in  exchange,  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
United  States  who  had  been  sent,  as  above  stated,  to 
England;  and  General  Dearborn  apprises  you  that, 
in  obedience  to  these  instructions,  he  had  put  twenty- 
three  British  soldiers  in  close  confinement,  to  be  kept 
as  hostages. 

"  The  persons  referred  to  in  this  letter  were  soldiers 
serving  in  the  American  army,  taken  prisoners  at 
Queenstown,  and  sent  home  by  you,  that  they  might 
be  disposed  of  according  to  the  pleasure  of  His  Royal 
Highness  the  Prince  Regent,  they  having  declared 
themselves  to  be  British-born  subjects.  Your  excel 
lency  has  been  directed  to  send  home  the  necessary 
evidence  upon  this  point,  and  they  are  held  in  custody 
to  undergo  a  legal  trial. 

"  You  will  lose  no  time  in  communicating  to  Major- 
General  Dearborn  that  you  have  transmitted  home  a 
copy  of  his  letter  to  you,  and  that  you  are,  in  conse 
quence,  instructed  distinctly  to  state  to  him,  that  you 
have  received  the  commands  of  His  Royal  Highness 
the  Prince  Regent,  forthwith  to  put  in  close  confine 
ment  forty-six  American  officers  and  non-commissioned 


Hostages  and  Retaliation.  77 

officers,  to  be  held  as  l^tages  for  the  safe-keeping  of 
the  twenty- three  British  soldiers  stated  to  have  been 
put  in  close  confinement  by  order  of  the  American 
Government ;  and  you  will  at  the  same  time  apprise 
him,  that  if  any  of  the  said  British  soldiers  shall  suffer 
death  by  reason  that  the  soldiers  now  under  confine 
ment  here  have  been  found  guilty,  and  that  the  known 
law,  not  only  of  Great  Britain,  but  of  every  indepen 
dent  state  under  like  circumstances,  has  been  in  conse 
quence  executed,  you  have  been  instructed  to  select  out 
of  the  American  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers 
whom  you  shall  have  put  into  close  confinement,  as 
many  as  may  double  the  number  of  British  soldiers 
who  shall  so  unwarrantably  have  been  put  to  death, 
and  cause  such  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers 
to  suffer  death  immediately. 

"  And  you  are  further  instructed  to  notify  to  Major- 
General  Dearborn,  that  the  commanders  of  His  Majes 
ty's  fleets  and  armies  on  the  coasts  of  America,  have 
received  instructions  to  prosecute  the  war  with  unmiti 
gated  severity  against  all  cities,  towns,  and  villages, 
belonging  to  the  United  States,  and  against  the  inhab 
itants  thereof,  if,  after  this  communication  shall  have 
been  duly  made  to  Major-General  Dearborn,  and  a 


78  Bitter  English  Feeling  in  America. 

reasonable  time  given  for  ifcs  teing  transmitted  to  the 
American  Government,  that  Government  shall  un 
happily  not  be  deterred  from  putting  to  death  any  of 
the  soldiers  who  now  are,  or  who  may  hereafter  be, 
kept  as  hostages,  for  the  purposes  stated  in  the  letter 
from  Major-General  Dearborn. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

"BATHURST." 

The  haughty  tone  of  this  letter  may  be  accounted 
for  by  remembering  ther  disasters  of  the  Russian  cam 
paign,  in  which  Napoleon  lost  by  frost  in  the  retreat 
from  Moscow,  the  flower  of  his  army;  to  the  vie- 
tories  of  Wellington  in  the  Peninsula,  which  opened 
exhausted  France  to  invasion,  and  to  the  assembling, 
at  the  moment,  of  the  elite  of  the  armies  of  continen 
tal  Europe  upon  Dresden,  to  give  the  coup  de  grace  to 
the  falling  emperor. 

Much  of  that  bitterness  of  English  feeling  prevailed, 
at  the  time,  in  one  of  the  American  parties.  The  Hon 
orable  Alexander  C.  Hanson,  M.  C.,  from  Maryland,  in 
a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  14, 
1814,  after  remarking  that  "  the  impressment  of  Brit 
ish  seamen  from  American  vessels  was  the  vital  point  " 


Denunciation  of  the  War.  79 

in  the  war — next  echoed  the  sentiments  of  Lord  Ba- 
thurst,  thus : 

*  "  Mr.  Chairman — upon  this  question  of  impress 
ment,  allegiance,  protection,  and  naturalization,  which 
has  been  connected  with  it,  gentlemen  here  may  fret, 
rail,  and  argue,  until  doomsday.  They  may  set  up 
new-fangled  doctrines,  and  deny  old  and  established 
principles,  but  as  far  as  depends  on  the  opinions  of  the 
ablest  jurists,  and  the  practice  of  the  oldest  regular 
governments,  the  point  in  controversy  is  long  ago  set 
tled.  It  is  immutably  determined. 

[Here  he  cited  "  the  fundamental  maxim  of  the  law 
of  England  " — "  perpetual  allegiance  " — "  once  a  sub 
ject,  always  a  subject."] 

"  !Nbw,  sir,"  continued  Mr.  Hanson,  "  I  am  pre 
pared  to  go  a  step  farther  than  has  been  deemed  neces 
sary  from  the  actual  case  presented  to  our  consider 
ation.  I  say,  that  an  Englishman,  naturalized  or  not 
by  our  laws,  if  found  in  arms  against  his  native  coun 
try,  is  a  traitor  by  the  laws  of  his  native  country.  I 
do  not  confine  the  position  to  British  subjects  natural 
ized  here,  and  made  captives  within  the  dominions  of 

*  Carpenter's  Select  American  Speeches,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  425-431. 


80  Denunciation  of  the  War. 

their  sovereign,  where  the  arm  of  protection  cannot  be 
extended ;  but,  if  the  armies  of  the  enemy  crossed  the 
line,  and  invaded  us  in  turn,  and  made  prisoner  a 
Briton  found  in  arms  against  Britain,  he  is  as  much  a 
traitor  as  if  taken  a  prisoner  in  the  heart  of  the  British 
empire. 

"  Such  men  are  traitors  in  the  legal,  true  sense  of 
the  word,  and  ought  to  be  treated  as  such.  The  good 
of  society  and  the  safety  of  government  require  it.  If, 
to  protect  them,  we  resort  to  a  bloody,  ferocious,  exter 
minating  system  of  retaliation,  we  shed  the  innocent 
blood  of  our  own  countrymen. 

"  I  say,  then,  without  reserve,  if  the  President  pro 
ceeds  in  the  ruthless,  bloody  business  he  has  com 
menced,  he  is  answerable,  here  and  hereafter,  for  all 
the  American  lives  wantonly  sacrificed.  Posterity  will 
pronounce  him  guilty,  and  heap  maledictions  upon  his 
name. 

*  %  %  «wiieil  the  party  contests  of  the  day  are 
forgotten ;  when  the  passions  engendered  by  political 
strife  have  subsided;  when  reason  shall  resume  her 
throne,  and  the  present  generation  is  swept  into  the 
silent  tomb,  those  who  live  after  us  will  pronounce  a 


Retaliatory  Measures  Successful.  81 

judgment  upon  the  chief  actors  in  this  tragedy  of 
blood  and  murder." 


These  were  dire  denunciations  of  "  the  chief  actors 
in  [the]  tragedy  of  blood  and  murder."  Yet  Major- 
General  Scott,  "  the  head  and  front  of  [that]  offend 
ing" — when  in  the  act  of  embarking  at  !N~ew  York, 
for  Europe,  July  9,  1815,  had  the  happiness  to  meet  on 
a  pier,  in  the  East  River,  just  from  an  English  prison, 
twenty-one  of  the  identical  men  taken  from  him  at 
Quebec — the  other  two  having  died  natural  deaths! 
It  was  thus,  and  not  by  any  subsequent  diplomacy  of 
the  American  Department  of  State,  as  has  sometimes 
been  claimed,  that  Great  Britain  was  forced  to  yield 
the  principle,  "  once  her  subject,  always  her  subject " — 
on  which  the  soldiers  were  seized,  and  hundreds  of 
sailors  impressed,  out  of  American  ships. 

ZsTovember  20,  1812,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott,  with 
the  remainder  of  the  regular  prisoners  taken  with  him 
at  Queenstown,  sailed  from  Quebec  for  Boston,  at  the 
beginning  of  a  snow  storm.  Such  were  the  known 
dangers  in  the  navigation  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
at  that  late  season,  that  the  ship  could  not  have  been 
insured  at  a  premium  of  less  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  her 
4* 


82         Bad  Time  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

value.  This  cartel  (British  ship)  was,  however,  staunch 
and  well  commanded.  After  being  blown  about  at  the 
mercy  of  a  succession  of  gales,  she,  at  the  end  of  twen 
ty-three  days,  entered  the  Gut  of  Canso — a  natural 
canal,  separating  Nova  Scotia  from  the  Isle  of  Cape 
Breton — and  came  to  anchor  in  a  cove  of  the  latter. 
Both  shores  were  mountainous  and  uninhabited  for  an 
indefinite  distance,  except  a  single  farmhouse  in  a  small 
valley,  opposite  to  the  cove  and  near  the  water.  This 
was  occupied  by  Mr.  Pain,  a  second  Robinson  Crusoe. 
He  had  sailed  from  Boston  in  a  smack  for  the  banks 
of  Newfoundland  and  other  fishing  grounds,  in  1774:, 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  Having  made 
up  the  cargo  in  the  Gut  of  Canso,  Pain  begged  his 
companions  to  let  him  remain  till  the  return  of  the 
party  the  following  season.  They  assisted  in  building 
him  a  hut,  and  left  with  him  a  good  supply  of  personal 
and  bed  clothes,  some  axes  and  other  tools,  a  gun,  with 
ammunition,  fishing  tackle,  and  such  other  stores  as 
could  be  spared — together  with  a  Bible, "  Paradise  Lost," 
and  "  The  Pilgrim's  Progress."  Prayers  were  said  at 
parting,  and  the  smack  sailed  for  home.  This  was  the 
last  that  our  adventurer  saw  of  "  the  human  face  di 
vine,"  till  the  end  of  nine  or  ten  years.  The  Revolu- 


A  Second  Robinson  Crusoe.  83 

tionary  "War  supervened.  There  was  no  more  fishing 
and  curing  of  fish  by  Americans  on  those  shores — the 
Gut  of  Canso  at  that  period  not  being  navigated  except 
by  vessels  driven  into  it  by  stress  of  weather.  There 
was  no  road  and  no  trail  across  the  mountains  to  any 
settlement  whatever. 

For  the  first  year,  and,  indeed,  till  his  supplies  be 
gan  to  fail  him,  Mr.  Pain,  then  young,  did  not  lament 
his  condition.  But  when  the  second  and  third  seasons 
came,  and  again  and  again  there  was  no  return  of  his 
friends,  it  seemed  evident  they  had  abandoned  him ; — 
his  spirits  drooped,  and  he  was  in  danger  of  being  lost 
in  despair.  Like  Alexander  Selkirk  in  similar  circum 
stances,  he  might  have  exclaimed  : 

"  I  am  monarch  of  all  I  survey, 

My  right  there  is  none  to  dispute ; 
From  the  centre  all  round  to  the  sea, 
I  am  lord  of  the  fowl  and  the  brute. 

"  0  solitude !  where  are  the  charms, 

That  sages  have  seen  in  thy  face  ? 

Better  dwell  in  the  midst  of  alarms, 

Than  reign  in  this  horrible  place. 

"  I  am  out  of  humanity's  reach, 

I  must  finish  my  journey  alone, 
Never  hear  the  sweet  music  of  speech — 
I  start  at  the  sound  of  my  own. 


84  Life  m  Solitude. 

"  The  beasts  that  roam  over  the  plain, 

My  form  with  indifference  see ; 
They  are  so  unacquainted  with  man, 
Their  tameness  is  shocking  to  me.' 


But  man  is  the  most  flexible  and  pliable  of  all  ani 
mals.     According  to  his  own  account,  Mr.  Pain  soon 
learned  to  relish  food  without  salt ;  the  moose  deer  and 
fleecy  goat  were  abundant,  furnishing  him  with  both 
food  and  raiment,  and  which  he  contrived  to  entrap 
after  his  powder  and  shot  were  exhausted.     So,  too,  in 
respect  to  wornout  hooks   and  lines :    these  were  re 
placed  by  bones  and  slips  of  skins,  so  that  there  was  no 
want  of  the  "  finny  prey."     By  the  fifth  year  he  began 
to  like  this  new  life  as  well  as  at  first.     His  books  were 
more  than  a  solace  to  him,  and  the  autobiographer  can 
testify  that  he  could  accurately  recite,  from  memory, 
entire  chapters  of  the  Bible,  and  many  of  the  books  of 
"  Paradise  Lost."     Finally,  when,  at  the  end  of  the  war, 
his  old  master  in  a  smack  came  in  search  of  him  or  his 
remains,  he  had  become  so  attached  to  this  new  mode 
of  existence  that  he  refused  to  return  to  his  native  soil. 
A  good  supply  of  necessaries  was  again  left  with  him. 
His  little  property  at  home  was  invested  in  cattle, 
with  materials  for  a  small  house,  some  furniture,  etc. 


Scurvy — Gut  of  Canso.  85 

— all  of  which  were  sent  out  to  him,  with  an  old  sister, 
a  farm  laborer,  and  a  lad — a  relative.  Before  1812, 
some  new  connections  and  laborers  had  joined  him, 
and  he  had  become  a  thrifty  farmer.* 

The  provisions  for  the  paroled  soldiers,  by  the  neg 
lect  of  the  British  commissariat,  proved  to  be  bad. 
The  salt  beef  and  pork  had  become  rusty,  and  the 
bread  worm-eaten.  This  food  had  been  on  board,  per 
haps,  a  twelvemonth,  and  a  part  of  the  time  in  a  hot 
climate.  The  scurvy  soon  appeared  among  the  sol 
diers.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Scott  threw  in  his  personal 
stores  (fresh  beef,  bread,  onions,  and  potatoes),  too 
small  a  stock  to  produce  much  benefit.  But  a  fine  ox, 
some  sheep,  and  a  hundred  bushels  of  potatoes,  bought 
of  Farmer  Pain,  proved  a  godsend,  stopping  the  disease 
at  once. 

*  It  is  not  known  that  any  memoir  or  notice  of  this  interesting  adven 
turer  has  ever  been  published. 


CHAPTEK    YIII. 

COLONEL   AND   ADJUTANT  -  GENERAL FORT    GEORGE OG- 

DENSBURG HOOP-POLE   CREEK FRENCH    MILLS. 

IT  has  already  been  stated  that  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Scott,  on  arriving  at  Washington  in  January,  1813, 
found  himself  exchanged.  After  a  short  interval,  he 
was  ordered  to  Philadelphia  to  take  command  of 
another  battalion  of  his  regiment  (a  double  one — twen 
ty  companies)  then  nearly  ready  for  the  field.  In  the 
month  of  March  he  was  appointed  adjutant-general, 
with  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  promoted  to  the  colonel 
cy  of  his  regiment  about  the  same  time.  He  continued 
to  hold  the  two  commissions  for  several  months,  occa 
sionally  quitting  the  staff  for  hours  or  a  day  to  com 
mand  his  own  and  other  troops  in  battles,  skirmishes, 


Niagara — Led  the  Forlorn  Hope.  87 

and  forrays.  With  his  battalion  lie  had  joined  the 
army  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Dearborn, 
on  the  Niagara  frontier,  early  in  May,  and,  as  the  chief 
of  his  staff,  first  organized  the  service  among  all  the 
staff  departments,  several  of  which  were  new  and 
others  unknown  in  the  United  States  since  the  Revo 
lutionary  War.  In  this  labor  he  was  greatly  aided  by 
an  early  edition  of  Theibault's  Manuel  General  du  Ser 
vice  des  fitats-Majors  Generaux,  etc. 

The  first  general  movement  of  this  army  had  for  its 
object,  by  the  capture  of  Fort  George,  to  make  the  left 
bank  of  the  Niagara  the  basis  of  further  operations. 
That  work,  on  the  river  side,  had  been  much  damaged, 
May  26,  by  the  batteries  of  Captains  Towson  and 
Archer  (of  Scott's  regiment)  at  Youngstown,  opposite. 
Accordingly,  on  the  next  day,  an  embarkation  com 
menced  from  a  creek  three  miles  east  of  the  Niagara, 
some  time  before  daylight.  Colonel  Scott  led  the  ad 
vance  guard  or  forlorn  hope,  composed  of  a  battalion 
of  his  own  regiment  acting  as  grenadiers,  and  a  small 
er  one,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  McFeely  of  the  22d 
Infantry,  and  was  followed  by  field  batteries  under 
Colonel  Moses  Porter;  Boyd's,  Chandler's,  and  Win 
der's  brigades,  and  a  rear  guard  (or  reserve)  under 


88  Descent  on  Lake  SJiore. 

Colonel  Macomb — making  a  force  of  about  four  thou 
sand  seven  hundred  men.  The  point  of  descent  was 
the  lake  shore,  a  half  mile  (or  more)  west  of  the  mouth 
of  the  river.  Commodore  Chauncey's  fleet  stood  in 
as  near  as  practicable,  and  by  its  fire,  kept  the  enemy, 
under  Brigadier-General  Vincent,  back  a  little,  till  the 
Americans,  when  near  the  shore,  became  a  shield  against 
that  fire. 

The  wind  was  fresh  and  the  surf  high.  Captain 
Perry,  an  old  friend  of  Scott,  who,  from  Lake  Erie, 
had  joined  Chauncey  as  a  volunteer,  for  the  day,  kind 
ly  took  Scott  in  his  gig  and  piloted  the  boats  of  the 
advance  guard  through  the  surf  and  the  brisk  fire  of 
the  enemy.  The  beach  was  narrow  and  the  bank  pre 
cipitous — from  seven  to  eleven  feet  high,  affording, 
generally,  but  slight  foothold  to  climbers.  The  first 
attempt  at  ascent  was  repulsed  by  the  bayonet,  and 
Scott,  among  others,  tumbled  backward.  Major-Gen 
eral  Dearborn,  a  fine  old  soldier,  saw,  from  the  fleet, 
the  fall,  and  honored  the  supposed  loss  of  the  chief  of 
his  staff  with  a  tear.  At  the  second  attempt  the  bank 
was  scaled — with  a  loss  of  every  fifth  man  killed  or 
wounded ;  the  line  of  battle  was  reformed,  and  a  furi 
ous  charge  made  that  drove  more  than  twice  the  num- 


Battle  of  Fwt  George.  SO 

ber  of  the  enemy  out  of  sight.  This  could  not  have 
been  done  but  for  the  intimidation  caused  by  the  fleet 
of  rowboats  seen  following  in  Scott's  wake.  Porter 
and  Boyd  soon  landed.  ISTot  a  horse  accompanied  the 
expedition;  but  Scott,  mounted  on  the  charger  of  a 
colonel,  a  prisoner,  had,  in  pursuing  the  enemy,  to 
thread  the  village  circumspectly,  which  gave  time  for 
Colonel  Miller  of  the  6th  Infantry  (Boyd's  brigade)  to 
unite  with  the  advance.  Passing  Fort  George,  now 
untenable  and  still  under  the  fire  of  the  American  bat 
teries  at  Youngstown,  two  fugitives  were  observed  who 
had  just  escaped  from  the  fort.  Scott,  singly,  charged 
and  made  them  throw  down  their  arms.  They  ir 
formed  him  that  nearly  all  the  garrison  had,  fifteen 
minutes  before,  joined  the  enemy's  retreat  up  the  river, 
and  that  the  few  men  remaining  were  spiking  the  guns 
and  applying  slow  matches  to  the  bastion  magazines. 
Desirous  to  save  these,  he  ordered  that  Captains  Hind- 
man  and  Stockton's  companies  (of  his  own  regiment) 
should  join  him  at  the  fort,  and  that  the  remainder  of 
the  column  should  continue  the  pursuit.  At  his  near 
approach,  one  of  the  magazines  exploded.  Horse  and 
rider  being  both  struck  by  splinters,  the  latter  was 
thrown  to  the  ground,  with  a  broken  collar  bone  and 


90  Capture  of  the  Fort. 

some  bruises.  Nevertheless,  aided  by  his  two  prison 
ers — the  detachment  from  the  column  being  nearly  up 
— Scott  was  the  first  to  enter  the  fort.  The  last  of  the 
garrison  escaped  at  the  same  moment.  Hindman  and 
Stockton  flew  to  the  two  unexploded  magazines  just  in 
time  to  pluck  away  the  burning  matches,  while  Scott 
took  the  colors  with  his  own  hands.* 

In  a  moment  he  was  again  in  the  saddle,  and  re 
joined  his  pursuing  column  already  in  the  midst  of  the 
enemy's  stragglers.  Opposite  to  the  Five  Mile  Meadow 
(that  distance  from  the  mouth  of  the  river)  Scott  met 
Colonel  Burn  (his  senior  colonel),  who  had  just  crossed 
over  with  a  troop  of  his  Light  Dragoons.  Another 
troop  was  approaching  in  boats,  and  Scott  agreed  to 
wait  for  it,  as  Burn  conceded  to  him  the  command. 
This  enabled  Brigadier-General  Boyd  personally  to 
overtake  and  order  the  whole  pursuing  force  back  to 
Fort  George,  against  the  remonstrances  of  Scott,  who 
assured  him  (as  he  had  replied  to  a  like  order  pre 
viously  received  from  Major-General  Lewis)  that,  with 


*  The  down-haul  halliard  of  the  colors  had  been  shot  away  by  the 
opposite  batteries.  Hence  the  retreating  garrison  had  nearly  cut  down 
the  flagstaff,  when  obliged  to  fly,  leaving  the  axe  hi  position.  With  this 
in  his  hand  Scott  soon  brought  to  the  ground  the  coveted  trophy. 


Pursuit  of  the  Enenny  Stopped.  91 

the  recnforcement  of  the  Light  Dragoons,  he  could  cap 
ture  the  disorganized  army  then  less  than  a  mile  ahead 
of  him.  Boyd,  acting  under  instructions,  insisted  on 
an  immediate  return  !  And  thus  terminated  the  bat 
tle  of  Fort  George,  May  27,  1813.* 

Colonel  Scott  now  limited  himself  mainly  to  his 
staff  duties.  The  disaster  of  the  6th  of  June,  at  Stony 
Creek,  resulting  in  the  capture  of  the  American  gen 
erals,  Chandler  and  "Winder,  though  the  enemy  was  re 
pulsed,  caused  Major-General  Dearborn  to  send  up  his 
second  in  rank,  Lewis,  with  Scott,  to  that  headless 
army  \  — a  renewed  attack  upon  it  being  imminent. 

*  Early  in  the  pursuit  (near  the  lake)  Scott  came  up  with  a  wounded 
colonel,  just  made  a  prisoner,  and  after  giving  directions  for  his  safety 
and  comfort,  borrowed  the  charger  before  mentioned.  Calling  to  restore 
the  property,  and  to  provide  for  his  wants,  the  Englishman  handsomely 
observed :  "  We  have  reversed  our  relative  positions  of  the  last  autumn. 
Allow  me,  in  the  way  of  apology,  to  say  that  you  can  now  see  the  Falls 
of  Niagara  in  all  their  splendor  " — alluding  to  what  he  had  said  to  Scott 
when  the  latter  was  the  prisoner,  viz. :  that  Scott,  who  had  said  some 
thing  on  the  subject — must  win  a  great  battle  before  he  could  have  that 
enjoyment.  This  sarcastic  remark  was  sharply  rebuked  at  the  time,  both 
by  the  offended  party  and  the  British  general,  Sheaffe,  at  whose  table  it 
was  made. 

f  This  extraordinary  result  irresistibly  brings  to  mind  the  siege  of 
Cremona  in  1702.  Prince  Eugene,  by  a  singular  stratagem,  entered  that 
city  in  the  night,  at  the  head  of  a  competent  force ;  but  was  finally  driven 
out  by  the  gallant  French  garrison,  without  other  loss  than  that  of  their 


92     Stony  Creek  Disaster — Scott  to  the  Rear  Guard. 

On  the  capture  of  Chandler  and  Winder,  letters 
came  down  from  that  army  to  headquarters,  at  Fort 
George,  requesting  that  Colonel  Scott  might  be  sent 
up  to  command  it..  But  as  he  arrived  with  a  major- 
general  (Lewis)  and  a  retreat  was  soon  ordered  from 
below,  the  general  cry  was  heard — Scott  to  the  rear 
guard!  That  post  of  honor  was  given  him,  and  the 
march  of  forty-odd  miles,  though  flanked  by  hostile 

commander,  Marshal  Due  de  Villeroi,  who  being  captured  and  secured 
at  the  very  entrance  of  the  Austrians,  gave  the  garrison  its  triumph. 
Madame  de  Stael,  on  the  subject  of  Russian  despotism,  wittily  said  it  was 
tempered  and  checked  by  the  salutary  practice  of  assassination — applied 
to  odious  czars.  So  among  the  French,  before  the  Revolution,  with  their 
keen  perception  of  the  witty  and  the  ludicrous :  a  bon-mot,  a  jeu  cFesprit, 
anonymously  circulated,  often  rebuked  and  held  in  defiance  the  meditated 
designs  and  absolutism  of  the  court.  Villeroi,  the  foster-brother  and  only 
acknowledged  favorite  Louis  XTV  ever  had,  was  made  to  feel  this  power, 
when  laid  on  the  shelf  and  rendered  harmless  for  a  time  by  the  following 
epigram : 

"  Francais,  rendez  grace  a  Bellone. 

Votre  bonheur  est  sans  egal ; 

Vous  avez  conserv6  Cremone 

Et  perdu  votre  general." 

Winder's  was  a  hard  fate,  both  at  Stony  Creek  and  (next  year)  at  Bla- 
densburg.  With  the  elements  of  a  good  soldier,  he,  like  Colonel  Drayton, 
though  poor,  sacrificed  to  patriotism  an  extensive  law  practice,  which  was 
not  recovered  after  the  war.  It  is  a  misfortune  to  begin  a  new  career 
with  too  much  rank,  or  rather,  too  late  in  life. 


Capture  of  Boersiler — Recall  of  Dearborn.      93 

Indians  on  one  side,  and  by  the  British  fleet  on  the 
other,  was  uninterrupted. 

Another  disaster  to  our  arms  soon  followed.  Colonel 
Boerstler,  June  23,  1813,  was  detached  with  some  six 
hundred  men,  of  all  arms,  to  attack  a  post  at  the  Beaver 
Dams,  near  Queenstown,  on  the  road  thence  to  the  head 
of  Lake  Ontario.  The  same  day  the  whole  of  this 
force,  falling  into  an  ambuscade,  was  captured. 

These  misadventures  deeply  affected  the  health  and 
spirits'  of  Major-General  Dearborn — who,  before,  had 
been  much  disordered  by  the  lake  fever.  An  order  of 
recall  soon  reached  him  from  the  War  Department. 
The  officers  of  his  army,  remembering  his  high  moral 
worth,~his  patriotism,  valor,  and  military  distinction  at 
Bunker  Hill,  Quebec,  Monmouth,  Yorktown,  etc.,  etc., 
deeply  sympathized  with  their  venerable  chief,  and  re 
quested  Colonel  Scott  to  be,  at  the  moment  of  separa 
tion,  the  organ  of  their  sentiments.  A  short,  emphatic 
valedictory  did  much  to  soothe  a  wounded  heart. 

Major-General  Lewis  having  been  previously  sent 
to  Sackett's  Harbor,  the  command  on  the  Niagara  basis 
now  devolved  on  Brigadier-General  Boyd — courteous, 
amiable,  and  respectable,  as  a  subordinate;  but  vacil 
lating  and  imbecile,  beyond  all  endurance,  as  a  chief 


94  Boyd  in  Command — Inactivity. 

under  high  responsibilities.  Fortunately,  the  British 
general-in-chief,  then  Major-General  de  Kottenburg, 
and  his  second,  Yincent,  were  equally  wanting  in  en 
terprise  and  execution.  The  Secretary  of  War,  General 
Armstrong,  a  great  military  critic  and  judge  of  charac 
ter,  instructed  Boyd  to  intrench  his  army,  and  not  to 
seek  a  conflict,  but  await  the  arrival  of  Major-General 
Wilkinson  *  from  New  Orleans. 

Thus  the  army  of  Niagara,  never  less  than  four 
thousand  strong,  stood  fixed,  in  a  state  of  ignominy  for 
some  two  months,  under  Boyd,  within  five  miles  of  an 
unintrenched  enemy  with  never  more  than  three  thou 
sand  five  hundred  men ! 

This  long  inactivity  was  slightly  enlivened  by  two 
night  demonstrations  of  the  enemy,  in  which  some  of 
the  American  *  pickets  were  driven  in;  by  one  affair 
between  Indians  of  the  opposing  armies,  and  by  a 
dozen  or  more  skirmishes,  growing  out  of  foraging 
operations,  several  of  which  turned  out  rather  serious 
affairs.  In  most  of  these,  Scott,  without  always  seek 
ing  the  service,  either  commanded  originally,  or  was, 

*  The  selection  of  this  unprincipled  imbecile  was  not  the  blunder  of 
Secretary  Armstrong.  Wilkinson,  whose  orders  were  dated  March  10, 
1813,  contrived  not  to  reach  Fort  George  till  the  4th  of  September! 


Foragvng — Indian  Affairs.  95 

at  the  first  shot,  sent  out  with  reinforcements,  when, 
by  seniority,  the  command  devolved  upon  him.  For 
tunately,  though  always  attacked,  he  never  lost  a  pris 
oner  or  a  wagon,  and  always  returned  with  a  loaded 
train.  These  successes  in  la  petite  guerre  came  near 
fixing  upon  him  the  character  of  a  partisan  officer, 
whereas  it  was  his  ambition  to  conduct  sieges  and  com 
mand  in  open  fields,  serried  lines,  and  columns. 

It  is  not  remembered  that  the  American  friendly 
Indians  were  allowed  to  take  part  in  that  war  except 
on  the  one  occasion  alluded  to  above.  A  little  while 
before  his  recall,  Maj  or  -General  Dearborn  assembled, 
in  council,  the  Seneca  and  other  Indian  chiefs,  residing 
near  Buffalo,  when  they  were  invited  to  furnish  a  few 
hundred  auxiliaries  in  the  existing  campaign,  to  serve 
the  purposes  of  watching  the  legions  of  British  Indians, 
of  interpreting  their  movements  and  intentions,  and 
specially  to  prevail  upon  them  to  return  to  their  native 
wilds — leaving  the  white  belligerents,  alone,  to  kill 
each  other  in  the  settlement  of  their  own  peculiar 
quarrel.  Scott  opened  the  council  on  the  part  of  the 
general,  and  was  replied  to  by  Red  Jacket — the  great 
orator  as  well  as  warrior  among  the  red  men.  He  was 
perfectly  ready  for  all  enterprises  of  hazard  promising 


96  Indi<m  Adventure. 

distinction;  but  the  sarcastic  heathen — all  the  other 
principal  chiefs  were  Christians — could  not  forbear,  in 
terpreting  the  invitation  in  his  own  way — help  us  to 
beat  the  British — producing  a  contradictory  letter  from 
General  Dearborn,  written  early  in  1812,  as  Secretary 
of  War,  in  which  neutrality,  in  the  approaching  hos 
tilities,  was  strictly  enjoined  on  the  part  of  all  Ameri 
can  Indians.  Nevertheless,  the  auxiliaries  under  the 
Farmer's  Brother,  the  venerable  head  chief;  Pollard, 
the  leader  of  the  Christian  party ;  and  Red  Jacket,  the 
leader  of  the  heathens,  all  promptly  joined  the  army  at 
Fort  George.  They  contrived  several  interviews  with 
many  chiefs  of  the  British  Indians ;  but  failed  to  per 
suade  them  to  a  pacific  course.  The  Farmer's  Brother, 
in  the  name  of  all  his  people,  then  solicited  permission, 
before  returning  home,  to  attack  one  of  the  hostile  In 
dian  camps  a  little  distance  apart  from  the  British 
regulars.  This  was  granted,  though  the  Americans, 
intrenched,  were  now  under  the  injunction  to  stand  on 
the  defensive ;  and  Scott,  as  adjutant-general,  was  de 
sired  to  instruct  the  Indians  not  to  kill  prisoners,  and 
not  to  scalp  the  dead.  Pollard  and  the  other  Chris 
tians  readily  acquiesced,  and  demanded  cords  and 
strings  for  tying  their  captives.  Red  Jacket  and  his 


Indian  Success.  97 

pagan  followers  asked  to  be  similarly  prepared  for  suc 
cess,  when  all  set  forward  in  high  spirits,  and  to  the 
great  amusement  of  the  army.  A  battalion  of  infantry 
had  been  advanced  halfway  to  the  enemy's  camp,  some 
three  miles  off,  to  serve  as  a  shield  and  support,  in  case 
the  gallant  assailants  should  be  repulsed  and  hotly  pur 
sued.  Passing  the  battalion,  the  Indians — not  under 
standing  injunctions  not  to  fight,  in  time  of  war! 
called  out — Come  along  •  what!  are  you  afraid? 
Conceive  the  deep  humiliation;  for  the  commander 
of  the  support  was  the  distinguished  Major  William 
Gumming  —  brave,  intellectual,  and  of  sensibilities 
almost  morbid. 

In  the  American  camp,  all  were  on  the  tiptoe  of 
anxiety  and  expectation  ;  but  soon  sharp  cracks  of 
rifles  were  heard,  followed  by  a  more  painful  silence. 
There  was  not  an  officer,  nor  a  man  who  would  not 
have  been  happy,  if  permitted,  to  rush  out  of  the  in- 
trenchments  to  support  his  red  friends.  In  thirty 
minutes,  however,  shouts  of  triumph  began  to  approach 
nearer  and  nearer.  The  enemy's  (Indian)  camp  had 
been  surprised,  many  of  his  red  men  killed  or  wounded, 
and  sixteen  made  prisoners.  When  these  were  seen, 
each  closely  pinioned  and  led  by  a  string,  the  novel 
5 


98        Quits  the  Staff— Embarks  with  Chauncey. 

spectacle  produced  such  roars  of  delight  as  to  be  heard 
from  camp  to  camp. 

Finding  his  position  at  headquarters,  for  the  reasons 
already  given,  disgusting,  Scott,  about  midsummer,  re 
signed  his  adjutant-generalcy,  and  limited  himself  to 
the  command  of  troops — his  own  regiment  and  others. 

Early  in  September  it  was  determined  to  make  a 
joint  expedition  against  Burlington  Heights,  in  rear 
of  the  British  army,  where  it  was  supposed  would  be 
found  large  magazines  of  materiel  and  other  important 
stores,  guarded  by  a  limited  force ;  and  Scott,  with  a 
competent  detachment,  was  embarked  on  board  of 
Commodore  Chauncey's  fleet  for  their  capture.  A 
landing  and  search  were  made,  but  nothing  of  value 
was  there.  It  being  now  certain  that  the  enemy's 
grand  depot  of  supplies  was  at  York  (Toronto),  the 
capital  of  Upper  Canada — captured  and  evacuated  by 
General  Dearborn  in  the  preceding  April — Chauncey 
and  Scott  resolved  to  make  a  second  descent  upon  that 
place.  The  latter,  with  the  land  troops  and  marines, 
debarked  and  drove  out  the  garrison  after  a  sharp 
rencounter — the  fortifications  had  not  been  renewed; 
and  formed  a  cordon  of  pickets  and  sentinels,  while 
the  commodore  emptied  the  public  storehouses  of  their 


Second  Capture  of  Little  York.  99 

abundant  contents.  Learning  that  there  were  many 
political  offenders  confined  in  the  jail,  Scott  caused 
them  (some  were  Americans)  to  be  sent  on  board  the 
fleet ;  but  gave  special  instructions  to  leave  all  felons — 
persons  charged  with  offences  against  morals — to  abide 
their  fate. 

On  reembarking,  he  learned  that  some  of  the  sailors 
had  brought  off  from  the  public  storehouses  a  few 
trunks,  belonging  to  British  officers — the  contents  of 
which — uniforms,  etc.,  he  now  saw  flaunting  about  the 
decks.  Causing  the  broken  and  emptied  trunks  to  be 
brought  to  him,  he  found  left  in  one,  marked  with  the 
name  of  General  Sheafie — a  mass  of  public  and  private 
papers.  The  latter,  unread,  were  carefully  separated, 
and  sent  to  the  British  headquarters.  A  sailor,  who 
witnessed  the  investigation,  showed  the  colonel  the 
miniature  of  a  beautiful  lady,  set  in  gold,  taken  out  of 
another  trunk  that  had  upon  it  the  name  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Harvey.  It  was  concluded  that  this  must  be 
the  likeness  of  the  lieutenant-colonel's  young  bride. 
Colonel  Scott  bought  it  of  the  sympathizing  sailor  for 
a  small  sum,  and  sent  it  to  the  gallant  husband,  with 
Sheaffe's  private  papers.* 

*  It  was  Harvey  that  surprised  and  captured  Chandler  and  Winder  at 


100          Left  ly  both  Armies  at  Fort  George. 

On  the  arrival  of  Major-General  "Wilkinson  at  Fort 
George,  September  4,  1813,  Scott,  as  an  official  obliga 
tion,  called  upon  him  and  gave  assurance  that  he  should 
continue  to  execute,  with  zeal  and  alacrity,  all  duties 
that  might  be  assigned  to  him.  In  less  than  a  month 
(October  2)  Wilkinson  and  nearly  the  whole  regular 
force  on  the  Niagara  moved  down  Lake  Ontario  in  the 
further  prosecution  of  the  campaign.  Scott  was  left  in 
command  of  Fort  George,  with  some  seven  hundred 
regulars,  and  a  detachment  of  Colonel  Swift's  regiment 
of  militia.  One  entire  side  of  the  fort — then  under 
going  an  extension — was  still  perfectly  open.  The 
enemy — remaining  in  undiminished  force,  within  five 
miles,  and  whom  Wilkinson  had  declined  to  attack — 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  weakness  of  Scott's  posi 
tion.  An  early  assault  seemed,  therefore,  inevitable. 
Each  officer  (including  the  commander)  and  man 
worked  upon  the  defences  from  fourteen  to  twenty 
hours  a  day.  By  the  fourth  night,  however,  so  great 

Stony  Creek,  in  June.  Scott  was  personally  acquainted  with  him.  Each, 
as  chief  of  the  staff,  in  his  own  army,  was  the  correspondent  of  the  other 
on  the  official  business  common  to  their  commanders.  In  that  way  they 
had  personally  met  with  escorts,  and  under  flags  of  truce.  The  intimacy 
thus  formed  was  turned  to  a  good  account  (in  1839),  as  will  be  seen  in  the 
sequel. 


Scotfs  Report.  101 

had  been  the  progress  of  these  labors,  that  all  became 
anxious  for  an  attack.  (The  following  official  reports, 
taken  from  American  State  Papers — Military  Affairs, 
pp.  482,  483,  will  carry  forward  the  narrative  as  far 
as  relates  to  the  autobiographer.) 

From  Colonel   Winfield  Scott,  of  the  2d  Artillery,  to 
Major- General  Wilkinson. 

"FORT  GEORGE,  October  11,  1813. 

"  Within  the  last  five  minutes  I  have  had  the  honor 
to  receive  your  despatch  by  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  Cap 
tain  Mix. 

"  The  enemy  has  treated  me  with  neglect.  He  con 
tinued  in  his  old  position  until  Saturday  last  (the  9th 
inst.),  when  he  took  up  his  retreat  on  Burlington 
Heights,  and  has  abandoned  the  whole  peninsula. 
Two  causes  are  assigned  for  this  precipitate  movement 
— the  succor  of  Proctor,  who  is  reported  to  be  entirely 
defeated,  if  not  taken ;  the  other,  the  safety  of  King 
ston,  endctngered  by  your  movement. 

"  We  nave  had  from  the  enemy  many  deserters, 
most  of  whom  concur  in  the  latter  supposition. 

"The  British  burnt  everything  in  store  in  this 
neighborhood; — three  thousand  blankets,  many  hun- 


102  Report  to  Wilkinson  Continued. 

dred  stand  of  arms;  also  the  blankets  in  the  men's 
packs,  and  every  article  of  clothing  not  in  actual  use. 

"  They  are  supposed  to  have  reached  Burlington 
Heights  last  evening,  from  the  rate  of  their  march  the 
night  before.  I  have  information  of  their  having  passed 
*  the  40 '  *  by  several  inhabitants  who  have  come  down. 
They  add  to  what  was  stated  by  the  deserters,  that  two 
officers  of  the  41st  had  joined  General  Yincent  from 
Proctor's  army,  with  information  that  Proctor  was  -de 
feated  eighteen  miles  this  side  of  Maiden.  I  cannot 
get  particulars. 

"  From  the  same  sources  of  intelligence  it  appears 
that  the  49th,  a  part  of  the  100th,  and  the  Yoltigeurs, 
moved  from  this  neighborhood  the  day  after  our  flotilla 
left  this,  the  3d  inst. ;  but  with  what  destination  is  not 
certainly  known. 

"  It  was  first  reported  (I  mean  in  the  British  camp) 
that  these  regiments  had  marched  to  support  Proctor, 
who,  it  is  said,  wrote  that  he  would  be  compelled  to 
surrender,  if  not  supported.f 

*  Forty  Mile  Creek — that  distance  from  Niagara, 
f  Proctor  was  defeated,  and  the  British  and  Indian  force  in  the  north 
west  routed,  on  the  5th  of  October,  1813. 

The  rumor  which  Scott  speaks  of  was  six  days  after  the  event,  and 


Report  to  Wilkinson  Continued.  103 

"  I  am  pretty  sure,  however,  that  they  are  gone  be 
low.  The  movement  of  our  army  seems  to  have  been 
known  in  the  British  lines  as  early  as  the  3d  inst.,  to 
gether  with  the  immediate  objects-  in  view :  hence  I 
have  no  difficulty  in  concluding  that  all  the  movements 
of  the  enemy  will  concentrate  at  Kingston. 

****«!  had  made  this  morning  an  arrange 
ment,  on  application  to  General  McClure,  to  be  re 
lieved  in  the  command  of  this  post,  on  the  morning 
of  the  13th  inst.,  with  an  intention  of  taking  up  my 
line  of  march  for  Sackett's  Harbor,  according  to  the 
discretion  allowed  me  in  the  instructions  I  had  the 
honor  to  receive  from  you  at  this  place.  My  situation 
has  become  truly  insupportable,  without  the  possibility 
of  an  attack  at  this  post,  and  without  the  possibility  of 
reaching  you  in  time  to  share  in  the  glory  of  impend 
ing  operations  below.  I  am,  however,  nattered  with 
the  assurance  that  transports  will  be  forwarded  for  my 
removal ;  and  to  favor  that  impression,  I  propose  taking 
up  my  line  of  march  on  the  morning  of  the  IcJth  for 
the  mouth  of  Genesee  River,  and  there  await  the  arrival 
of  the  vessels  you  are  good  enough  to  promise  me.  By 

was  no  doubt  brought  in  either  by  officers  or  Indians  from  the  defeated 
army. 


104  Report  to  Secretary  of  War. 

this  movement  Captain  Mix  thinks  with  me,  that  I 
shall  hasten  my  arrival  at  Sackett's  Harbor  five,  possi 
bly  ten  days.  Captain  Camp  *  (the  quartermaster)  has 
a  sufficient  number  of  wagons  to  take  me  thither.  I 
can  easily  make  that  place  by  the  evening  of  the  15th. 
I  hope  I  shall  have  your  approbation,  and  everything 
is  arranged  with  Brigadier  McClure.  *  *  *  *  I  have, 
by  working  night  and  day,  greatly  improved  the  de 
fences  of  this  post,  and  nearly  filled  up  the  idea  of  the 
engineer.  I  natter  myself  that  I  have  also  improved 
the  garrison  in  discipline."  *  *  *  * 

Wilkinson's  abortive  campaign  ended,  Scott  was 
called  to  Washington  for  a  day  or  two. 

Extracts  of  a  Letter  from  Colonel  Winfield  Scott  to  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

"  GEORGETOWN,  December  31,  1813. 

"  At  your  desire,  I  have  the  honor  to  make  the  fol 
lowing*  report : — I  left  Fort  George  on  the  13th  of 
October  last,  by  order  of  Major-General  Wilkinson 
with  the  whole  of  the  regular  troops  of  the  garrison, 

*  Colonel  J.  G.  Camp,  a  distinguished  officer  in  the  campaign  of  1814, 
on  the  Niagara. 


Report  Continued.  105 

and  was  relieved  by  Brigadier-General  McClure,*  with 
a  body  of  the  New  York  detached  militia. 

"  Fort  George,  as  a  field  work,  might  be  considered 
as  complete  at  that  period.  It  was  garnished  with  ten 
pieces  of  artillery  (which  number  might  easily  have 
been  increased  from  the  spare  ordnance  of  the  opposite 
fort),  and  with  an  ample  supply  of  ammunition,  etc., 
as  the  enclosed  receipt  for  those  articles  will  exhibit. 

"  Fort  Niagara,  on  the  14th  of  October,  was  under 
the  immediate  command  of  Captain  Leonard  of  the  1st 
artillery,  who,  besides  his  own  company,  had  Captain 
Bead's  of  the  same  regiment,  together  with  such  of 
General  McClure's  brigade  as  had  refused  to  cross  the 
river.  Lieutenant-Colonels  Fleming,  Bloom,  and  Dob 
bins,  of  the  militia,  had  successively  been  in  command 
of  this  fort,  by  order  of  the  brigadier-general,  but  I 
think  neither  of  these  was  present  at  the  above  period. 
Major-General  Wilkinson,  in  his  order  to  me  for  the 
removal  of  the  regular  troops  on  that  frontier,  excepted 
the  two  companies  of  the  1st  artillery,  then  at  Fort 

*  On   the  approach  of  the  enemy,  McClure  evacuated  the  fort  and 
burnt  the  adjoining  village — then  Newark,  now  Niagara.     This  soon  led 
to  the  devastation  of  that  entire  frontier,  including  Buffalo.     So  prone  are 
men  to  imitate  evil  examples  ! 
5* 


106  Heavy  Ma/rch  to  Sacketfs  Harbor. 

Niagara.  And  under  the  supposition  that  I  should 
meet  water  transportation  for  my  detachment  at  the 
mouth  of  Genesee  River,  I  had  his  orders  to  take  with 
me  the  whole  of  the  convalescents  left  in  the  different 
hospitals  by  the  regiments  which  had  accompanied 
him.  This  order  I  complied  with." 

Notwithstanding  Chauncey's  promise  to  send  trans 
ports  to  the  Niagara,  and  Wilkinson's,  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Genesee,  Scott,  on  arriving  at  the  latter,  found  only 
the  despatch  vessel,  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  with  a  let 
ter  from  the  commodore  saying  that,  contrary  to  his 
entreaties,  Wilkinson  would  not  allow  any  part  of  the 
fleet  to  be  absent  four  days  without  throwing  the  re 
sponsibility,  in  case  of  a  failure  of  his  expedition 
wholly  on  the  navy.  Hence  Scott  was  forced  to  con 
tinue  his  march  upon  Sackett's  Harbor,  via  Canan- 
daigua,  Utica,  Booneville,  etc.  The  rainy  season  had 
commenced,  and  the  bad  roads  were  daily  becoming 
worse.  Fortunately  he  met  north  of  Utica  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  General  Armstrong,  returning  from 
Sackett's  Harbor,  who  had  seen  Wilkinson  depart 
thence  for  Montreal ;  but  thinking  that  Scott,  by  leav 
ing  his  column  under  the  next  in  rank  (Hindman),  and 


Passage  of  Fort  Wellington.  107 

striking  off  to  the  right,  via  Malone,  might  intercept 
the  descent — gave  the  colonel  permission  to  make  the 
attempt.  Riding  diligently  for  some  thirty  hours, 
with  his  adjutant  Jonathan  Kearsley — who  early  won 
the  rank  of  major  by  distinguished  gallantry,  but  so 
maimed  as  to  be  thrown  out  of  the  field — Scott  struck 
the  river  at  Waddington  many  miles  below  Ogdens- 
burg  where  Wilkinson,  with  his  usual  dilatoriness, 
had  been  making  preparations  to  pass  the  enemy's 
fort — Wellington — opposite.  After  a  short  sleep  and 
change  of  horses,  Scott  was  again  in  the  saddle,  and 
reported  himself  at  headquarters  November  the  6th, 
just  in  time  to  pass  the  enemy's  fire  in  the  headmost 
and  largest  craft  in  the  whole  flotilla.  The  scene  was 
most  sublime.  The  roar  of  cannon  was  unremitting, 
and  darkness  rendered  visible  by  the  whizzing  and 
bursting  of  shells  and  Congreve  rockets. 

The  next  {lay  Scott  was  assigned  to  a  fine  battalion 
of  grenadiers,  in  the  corps  d?  elite,  under  the  senior 
colonel,  Macomb,  who  was  in  the  advance,  and  thus 
the  former  became  the  commander  of  the  advance  of 
that  corps — which  placed  him  in  the  lead  of  the  whole 
army.  Hastening  to  his  position  he  found  the  grena 
diers  in  boats  and  pushing  off  shore.  He  had  but  time 


108     Command  of  the  Advance — Hooppole  Creek. 

to  leap  aboard,  when,  being  recognized,  loud  cheers 
welcomed  the  new  commander. 

The  first  object  was  to  take  Fort  Matilda,  that 
commanded  the  narrowest  point  in  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Scott  landed  about  sunset  a  little  above  the  work,  and 
was  there  met  by  a  detachment  of  the  enemy  that 
proved  to  be  the  garrison  of  Matilda — believed,  by 
them,  to  be  untenable.  A  sharp  affair  ensued.  The 
advance  made  some  prisoners,  among  them  an  officer ; 
killed  or  wounded  many  men,  and  dispersed  the  re 
mainder. 

Descending  the  river  the  advance  had,  on  the  llth 
of  November  a  more  serious  affair  at  Hooppole  Creek, 
a  little  above  Cornwall.  Here  were  met,  under  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Dennis,  an  officer  of  merit,  a  force  equal 
to  Scott's  (about  eight  hundred  men)  in  position  to  de 
fend  the  bridge.  Leaving  Captain  McPherson  with  a 
light  field  battery — other  troops  were  coming  up — to 
amuse  the  enemy,  Scott  stole  a  march  of  nearly  a  mile 
to  the  left,  and  forded  the  creek  which,  making  an 
acute  angle  with  the  river  below,  gave  the  hope  of 
hemming  in  and  capturing  the  whole  of  the  enemy. 
Dennis  discovered  the  movement  in  time  to  save  by  a 
precipitate  retreat  the  main  body  of  his  men.  The 


Retreat  out  of  Canada.  109 

rear,  however,  was  cut  off,  and  many  stragglers  picked 
up  in  a  hot  pursuit  that  was  continued  into  the  night. 

This  affair,  and  the  disaster  at  Chrystler's  Field, 
fifteen  miles  in  the  rear,  occurred  the  same  day,  and 
were  the  principal  conflicts  of  Wilkinson's  famous  cam 
paign — begun  in  boastings,  and  ended  in  deep  humili 
ation!  Montreal  was  still  within  the  easy  grasp  of 
half  the  troops  disgraced  by  their  commanders  at 
Chrystler's  Field;  but  the  fatuity  of  the  general-in- 
chief  (and  of  others)  made  success  almost  impossible. 
The  army,  in  disgust,  retreated  out  of  Canada;  as 
cended  the  Salmon  River,  and  passed  the  winter  at 
The  French  Mills — since  called  Fort  Covington — in 
latitude  45°. 


CHAPTEK    IX. 

REFLECTIONS    ON    PAST    DISASTERS CALLED    TO    WASHING 
TON BUFFALO CAMP   OF  INSTRUCTION CAMPAIGN  OF 

1814   OPENED. 

THE  patriot  reader,  stirred  with  indignation  at  the 
deplorable  loss  of  national  character,  life,  and  property 
sustained  by  Hull's  surrender ;  the  surprise  of  Chand 
ler  at  Stony  Creek;  the  capture  of  Boerstler  at  the 
Beaver  Dams ;  the  abandonment  of  Fort  George,  by 
McClure ;  the  vacillation  and  helplessness  of  at  least 
three  generals  and  many  colonels  in  the  disaster  "of 
Chrystler's — will  ask,  at  every  turn  :  "What !  Shall 
not  fatuity,  incapacity,  ignorance,  imbecility — call  it 
as  you  may — in  a  commander — of  whatever  rank — be 
equally  punished  with  cowardice,  or  giving  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  enemy?  Shall  a  dull  man,  who  ascer- 


Painful  Reflections.  Ill 

tains  that  he  can  get  a  little  money  in  the  army — not 
having  the  ability  to  earn  his  bread  at  home — and,  ac 
cordingly,  obtains  a  commission?  Shall  a  coxcomb, 
who  merely  wants  a  splendid  uniform  to  gratify  his 
peacock  vanity — be  allowed  unnecessarily  to  lose  his 
men  by  hundreds,  or  by  thousands,  to  surrender  them 
in  mass,  or  to  cause  them  to  be  beaten  by  inferior 
numbers  ; — shall  such  imbeciles  escape  ignominious 
punishment  ?  In  every  such  case,  Humanity — as  loud 
ly  as  Justice — calls  for  death. 

In  the  Analectic  Magazine  (Philadelphia)  for 
December,  1814,  there  is  a  "Biographical  Sketch  of 
Major-General  Scott,"  signed  V. — understood  to  be 
the  distinoruished  scholar  and  statesman — the  Honor- 

Q 

able  Gulian  C.  Verplanck — containing  reflections  of 
great  beauty,  force,  and  value  on  the  same  campaign. 
The  writer  says : 

"  From  whatever  cause  it  proceeded,  individual 
bravery  and  enterprise  had  been  uniformly  rendered 
abortive  by  a  long  series  of  delays  and  blunders.  The 
patriot,  who,  regardless  of  party  considerations,  looked 
solely  to  the  national  honor  and  welfare,  still  continued 
to  turn  away  his  eyes  from  the  northern  frontier — 


112  Reflections  Continued. 

6  heartsick  of  his  country's  shame.'  Even  the  most 
zealous  partisans  of  the  measures  of  the  administration 
did  not  dare  to  do  justice  to  the  numerous  examples  of 
prowess  and  conduct  which  had  been  displayed  in  our 
armies  in  the  course  of  the  campaign  of  1813.  It  was 
scarcely  suspected  by  the  public,  that  this  period  of 
disaster  had  served  as  a  touchstone  on  which  the  true 
temper  of  our  army  had  been  thoroughly  tried,  so  that 
it  had  now  become  easy  to  select  the  pure  metal  from 
the  dross ;  that  in  this  hard  school  of  adversity  many 
brave  and  high-spirited  young  men  had  been  formed 
into  accomplished  officers,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
many  an  empty  fop,  young  and  old,  who  had  been 
seduced  into  the  service  by  the  glitter  of  epaulets  and 
lace,  and  military  buttons,  had  been  severely  taught 
his  incompetency.  'The  rude  northern  gales  of  the 
frontier  had  swept  away  the  painted  insects  which  rise 
and  spread  their  wings  in  the  summer  sun,  but  served 
only  to  rouse  and  invigorate  those  eagle  spirits  who, 
during  the  calm,  cower  undisturbed  in  solitude  and 
silence,  but  as  the  tempest  rises  burst  forth  from  their 
obscurity,  and  stem  the  storm,  and  sport  themselves  in 
the  gale." 


Equipoise  of  Imbecility  on  Lake  Ontario.     113 

Early  in*  1813,  the  great  contest  on  Lake  Ontario 
commenced  between  the  ship  carpenters  at  Kingston, 
under  Sir  James  Yeo,  and  the  ship  carpenters,  under 
Commodore  Chauncey,  at  Sacketts  Harbor.  He  that 
launched  the  last  ship  sailed  in  triumph  up  and  down 
the  lake,  while  his  opponent  lay  snug,  but  not  inactive, 
in  harbor.  This  was  (say)  Chauncey's  week  of  glory. 
Sir  James's  was  sure  to  follow,  and  Chauncey,  in  turn, 
had  to  chafe  in  harbor,  while  preparing  another  launch 
for  recovering  the  mastery  of  the  lake.  This  contest 
might  have  been  continued,  without  the  possibility  of 
a  battle  for  an  indefinite  time.  It  did  not  end  with 
1814;  for  the  treaty  of  peace  (February,  1815)  found 
on  the  stocks,  at  Sacketts  Harbor,  two  mammoth  ships 
— the  Chippewa  and  New  Orleans — pierced  for  more 
than  a  hundred  guns  each,  only  waiting  for  a  thaw ; 
and  Sir  James  Yeo  was  always  ready  to  match  launch 
with  launch. 

Thus  the  two  naval  heroes  of  defeat  held  each  other 
a  little  more  than  at  arms-length — neither  being  will 
ing  to  risk  a  battle  without  a  decided  superiority  in 
guns  and  men ;  and  if  Wilkinson  complained  of  the 
non-capture  of  the  British  fleet,  Chauncey  was  ready 
with  the  retort  that  Wilkinson  ought  first  to  deprive 


114  War  Incapacity  of  Government. 

that  fleet  of  its  safe  refuge  by  taking  Kingston.  In 
fact,  in  the  plan  of  operations  prescribed  to  Wilkinson 
the  capture  of  Kingston  was  suggested  as  an  early  ob 
ject  of  attention.  Wilkinson,  however,  as  we  have 
seen,  preferred  to  take  Montreal!  Here  then  was 
found,  in  this  extraordinary  campaign,  more  than  one 
case  of  (seeming)  matchless  imbecility,  well  matched. 

This  war  was  not  sprung  upon  the  United  States 
by  surprise.  From  time  to  time,  and  for  years,  wrong 
upon  wrong  had  plainly  admonished  that  base  submis 
sion  or  resistance  d  entrance  was  inevitable,  and  the 
weaker  party  had  the  choice  of  time.  Yet  there  was 
but  slight  augmentation  of  the  land  and  naval  forces, 
even  under  such  powerful  inducements,  and  no  system 
of  finance  established.  Loans,  it  is  true,  were  author 
ized  ;  but  no  adequate  means  provided  for  interest  and 
redemption.  Hence,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  hostilities,  there  was  a  want  of  money  and  men. 
Indeed,  seven  tenths  of  the  moneyed  capital  of  the  land 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  war's  bitterest  opponents. 
With  money,  men  might  have  been  obtained,  and  with 
men,  victories  would  have  inspired  confidence,  and  thus 
the  cupidity  of  capitalists  allured.  Hence  it  was  that 
our  fifty-odd  regular  regiments  were  mostly  skeletons 


Skeleton  Regiments — Called  to   Washington.     115 

(scarcely  one  ever  half  full)  during  the  war,  and  we 
always  in  our  triumphs,  attacked  or  defended  with  in 
ferior  numbers,  except  in  a  few  instances,  when  equal 
ity  was  made  up  by  raw  volunteers  or  militia — oftener 
an  element  of  weakness  than  of  strength.  This  was 
extremely  discouraging  to  commanders,  like  Scott, 
whose  rank,  zeal,  and  efficiency  threw  them  into  the 
front  of  every  movement. 

It  has  been  seen  that  Colonel  Scott,  about  the  end 
of  the  year  1813,  was  called  to  "Washington  by  desire 
of  the  President.  He  had  had  only  three  interviews 
with  him  and  Mr.  Secretary  Armstrong,  when  a  depu 
tation  from  Western  IsTew  York,  headed  by  the  Hon. 
John  Nicholas,  of  Geneva  (ex-M.  C.  from  Virginia) 
arrived,  to  demand  that  Scott  might  be  sent  to  make 
head  against  the  enemy  on  the  Niagara  frontier,  which 
had  just  been  devastated  by  Major-General  Riall,  in  re 
taliation  (as  alleged)  for  McClure's  burning  the  village 
of  Newark.  Riall  having,  by  a  rapid  movement,  dis 
mayed  and  scattered  the  militia  from  Lake  Ontario  to 
Lake  Erie  almost  without  firing  a  gun,  it  was  not 
known  how  far  he  might  extend  his  triumphant  march 
into  the  interior.  For  a  time  the  alarm  extended  as 
far  east  as  Geneva  and  Canandaigua.  Scott  was  hasti- 


116  Sent  to  the  Niagara. 

Ij  despatched  accordingly;  but  instructed  to  stop  a 
moment  at  Albany,  in  order  to  make  requisitions  upon 
the  Governor  for  fresh  levies  of  militia;  to  prepare 
field  trains,  with  ammunition,  etc.,  etc.,  for  his  new 
mission,  and  in  order  that  the  appointment  of  briga 
dier-general  might  overtake  him,  as,  without  promo 
tion,  he  could  not  command  any  militia  general  officer. 
But  it  was  soon  known  at  Washington  that  the  enemy 
had  quietly  recrossed  the  Niagara,  and  as  the  War 
Department  wished  about  this  time  to  make  a  number 
of  new  generals  at  once,  Scott's  promotion  was  made  to 
wait  for  the  selection  of  the  other  names.  In  the  mean 
time  he  continued  to  assist  in  the  Albany  arsenal  in 
the  preparation  of  the  materiel  of  war  for  the  im 
pending  campaign,  under  the  valuable  instructions  of 
Colonel  Bomford,  who  was  well  skilled  in  such  opera 
tions. 

At  this  dark  period  of  the  war,  Albany,  rather  than 
Washington,  was  the  watchtower  of  the  nation,  and 
here  Scott,  during  this  hindrance  on  the  route  to 
Canada,  was,  by  the  desire  of  the  President,  and  their 
cordial  reception,  in  frequent  consultation — on  high 
political  and  military  matters — with  those  distinguish 
ed  statesmen  and  patriots — Governor  Tompkins  and 


Political  Councils — A  Brigadier.  117 

Judges  Spencer  and  Thompson — ever  afterward  his 
special  friends.  Two  other  eminent  citizens — Messieurs 
Jenkins  and  Bloodgood — were  often  present,  and  in 
deed  it  was  at  the  board  of  some  one  of  the  five — all 
hospitable — that  these  confidential  interviews  were 
usually  held.  In  the  JSTorth  Judge  Spencer  was,  truly, 
very  like  Judge  Spencer  Roane  in  the  South — the 
master  spirit  of  the  war ; — a  man  that  never  doubted, 
when  duty  called,  or  shirked  an  opinion.  "With  him, 
it  was  but  a  word  and  a  blow.  "  Down  with  that  man  ! 
a  poltroon,  a  traitor."  "  Up  with  this  man  !  the  coun 
try  needs  his  services."  And  the  result  was,  very  gen 
erally,  in  accordance  with  the  dictum. 

It  may  be  mentioned,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
late  ex-President  Yan  Buren — then  just  emerging  into 
distinction,  a  State  senator  and  adjunct  counsel  in  the 
prosecution  of  Hull  before  a  general  court  martial — 
now  began  to  make  time,  from  the  labors  of  the  Senate 
and  the  bar,  to  mix  a  little  in  the  reunions  alluded  to. 
He  ably  supported  the  war,  and  had  the  confidence  of 
all  its  friends. 

Finally,  about  the  middle  of  March,  1814,  Scott 
received,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  and  nine  months, 
the  long-coveted  rank  of  brigadier-general.  His  prep- 


118     Off  for  the  Niagara — Camp  of  Instruction. 

arations  had  been  made  in  advance,  and  the  next  morn 
ing  he  was  in  the  saddle  for  where 

"  Niagara  stuns  with  thundering  sound." 

Major-General  Brown,  appointed  to  command  the 
entire  frontier  of  New  York,  had  marched  some  days 
earlier  from  the  French  Mills  for  the  same  destination, 
with  the  9th,  llth,  21st,  22d,  23d,  and  25th  regiments 
of  infantry  (not  one  of  them  half  full);  several  field 
batteries  and  a  troop  of  light  dragoons.  Scott  joined 
him  some  miles  east  of  Buffalo,  March  24, 1814.  Brig 
adier-General  Ripley,  Scott's  junior,  was  with  those 
troops. 

The  major-general,  though  full  of  zeal  and  vigor, 
was  not  a  technical  soldier :  that  is,  knew  but  little  of 
organization,  tactics,  police,  'etc.,  etc.  He,  therefore, 
charged  Scott  with  the  establishment  of  a  camp  of  in 
struction  at  Buffalo,  and  the  preparation  of  the  army 
for  the  field  by  the  reopening  of  the  season.  In  the 
mean  time — and  while  waiting  for  the  recruits  (which 
never  came)  to  fill  up  the  regiments — Major-General 
Brown  returned  to  the  right  wing  of  his  department — 
then  called  District,  No.  9 — headquarters,  Sackett's 
Harbor. 


Camp  of  lust/ruction  at  Buffalo.  119 

The  spring,  in  the  region  of  Buffalo,  is,  till  late  in 
May,  inclement,  and  March  quite  wintry.  JSTo  time, 
however,  was  lost ;  the  camp  was  formed  on  very  eligi 
ble  ground ;  the  infantry  thrown  into  first  and  second 
brigades — the  latter  under  Ripley,  and  the  service  of 
outposts,  night  patrols,  guards,  and  sentinels  organized ; 
a  system  of  sanitary  police,  including  kitchens,  etc.,' 
laid  down;  rules  of  civility,  etiquette,  courtesy — the 
indispensable  outworks  of  subordination — prescribed 
and  enforced,  and  the  tactical  instruction  of  each  arm 
commenced.  Nothing  but  night  or  a  heavy  fall  of 
snow  or  rain  was  allowed  to  interrupt  these  exercises 
on  the  ground — to  the  extent,  in  tolerable  weather,  of 
ten  hours  a  day,  for  three  months.  As  relaxation,  both 
officers  and  men  were  thus  brought  to  sigh  for  orders 
to  beat  up  the  enemy's  quarters ;  but  the  commander 
knew  that  such  work  could  not  be  effectually  done 
without  the  most  laborious  preparation.  His  own 
labors  were  heavy  and  incessant.  Take  for  illustra 
tion  infantry  tactics  /  the  basis  of  instruction  for  cav 
alry  and  artillery  as  well.  As  Government  had  pro 
vided  no  text  book  Brigadier-General  Scott  adopted, 
for  the  army  of  the  Magara,  the  French  system,  of 
which  he  had  a  copy  in  the  original,  and  there  was  in 


120  Labors  of  Instruction. 

camp  another,  in  English — a  bad  translation.  He  be 
gan  by  forming  the  officers  of  all  grades,  indiscrimi 
nately  into  squads,  and  personally  instructed  them  in 
the  schools  of  the  soldier  and  company.  They  then 
were  allowed  to  instruct  squads  and  companies  of  their 
own  men — a  whole  field  of  them  under  the  eye  of  the 
general  at  once,  who,  in  passing,  took  successively 
many  companies  in  hand,  each  for  a  time.  So,  too,  on 
the  formation  of  battalions  ;  he  instructed  each  an  hour 
or  two  a  day  for  many  days,  and  afterward  carefully 
superintended  their  instruction  by  the  respective  field 
officers.  There  was  not  an  old  officer  in  the  two 
brigades  of  infantry.  Still,  if  the  new  appointments 
had  been  furnished  with  a  text  book,  the  saving  of  time 
and  labor  would  have  been  immense. 

The  brigadier-general's  labors  were  about  the  same 
in  respect  to  lessons  on  subjects  alluded  to  above,  other 
than  tactics  (measures  of  safety  to  a  camp,  near  the 
enemy;  police,  etiquette,  etc.).  No  book  of  general 
regulations  or  Military  Institutes,  had  been  provided. 
This  great  want  he  had  to  supply  orally  and  by  writ 
ten  orders.  (It  will  be  seen  that  text  books  on  all  the 
foregoing  subjects  were  subsequently  prepared  and 
published  by  the  autobiographer.) 


Arrival  of  General  Brown.  121 

The  evolutions  of  the  line,  or  the  harmonious  move 
ments  of  many  battalions  in  one  or  more  lines,  with  a 
reserve — on  the  same  principle  that  many  companies 
are  manoeuvred  together  in  the  same  battalion,  and 
with  the  same  ease  and  exactness — were  next  daily  ex 
hibited  for  the  first  time  by  an  American  army,  and  to 
the  great  delight  of  the  troops  themselves,  who  now 
began  to  perceive  why  they  had  been  made  to  fag  so 
long  at  the  drill  of  the  soldier,  the  company,  and  the 
battalion.  Confidence,  the  dawn  of  victory,  inspired 
the  whole  line. 

Toward  the  end  of  June,  1814,  Major  -  General 
Brown  returned  from  the  right  to  the  left  wing  of  his 
district,  to  open  the  campaign  on  the  Niagara,  though 
it  had  become  rather  the  expectation,  if  not  the  desire 
of  the  War  Department,  that  that  service  should  be  left 
to  Scott,  the  immediate  commander.  The  regiments 
from  the  failure  to  obtain  recruits,  were  still  but  skele 
tons.  Their  high  instruction  on  all  points  of  duty 
won  for  them,  however,  the  major-general's  admiration. 

With  a  view  to  the  prestige  of  the  day,  Scott  rather 
wished  to  make  the  descent  on  our  national  anniver 
sary  ;  but  Brown's  impatience  being  equal  to  his  vigor, 
we  anticipated  a  day,  although  the  means  of  passing 


122  Descent   Under  Fire. 

i 

the  foot  of  Lake  Erie  to  attack  the  fort  of  that  name 
opposite  to  Buffalo,  were  not  all  quite  in  position.  For 
the  preparation  of  those  means,  the  army  was  indebted 
to  the  extraordinary  zeal  and  abilities  of  its  quarter 
master,  Captain  John  G.  Camp,  who,  with  other  high 
claims  to  promotion,  continued  the  chief  in  that  branch 
of  the  staff  throughout  the  campaign,  without  other  re 
ward  than  compliments.* 

Scott,  with  his  brigade  led,  followed  by  Major  Hind- 
man's  artillery,  Brigadier-General  Ripley's  brigade  of 
regulars,  and  Brigadier-General  P.  B.  Porter's  brigade 
of  militia ;  Ripley  was  ordered  to  land  above  the  fort. 
Scott,  in  the  first  boat,  with  some  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  accompanied  by  his  staff — Captain  Camp, 
the  quartermaster  (a  volunteer  for  the  nonce),  and  Lieu 
tenants  Gerard  D.  Smith,  W.  J.  "Worth,  and  George 
Watts — steered  for  the  shore,  a  little  below  the  point  of 
attack.  The  place  of  landing  proved  to  be  a  cove, 
swept  by  a  whirlpool.  The  night  (about  2  o'clock  A.  M.) 
was  rather  dark;  but  the  enemy,  perceiving  the  ap 
proach,  planted  a  detachment  to  oppose  the  landing. 
Near  the  shore,  when  the  enemy's  fire  began  to  be  a 

*  He  was  disbanded  in  1815  ;  made  and  lost  fortunes  in  Buffalo  and 
Sundusky;  was  several  years  Marshal  in  Florid-,  and  died  in  1860. 


Fort  Erie  Invested — Capt^ired.  123 

little  galling  upon  the  crowd  in  the  boats,  Scott  had  a 
most  critical  adventure.  Sounding  with  his  sword,  he 
found  the  water  less  than  knee  deep,  when  personally 
Leaping  out,  instead  of  giving  the  command — follow 
me !  had  scarcely  time  to  exclaim — too  deep  !  to  save 
hundreds  from  drowning;  for,  at  the  instant,  before 
leaping,  his  boat  had  taken  a  wide  sheer,  and  he  had 
to  swim  for  his  life,  equally  in  jeopardy  from  fire  and 
water — encumbered  with  sword,  epaulets,  cloak,  and 
high  boots.  It  was  a  minute  or  two,  still  under  fire, 
before  the  boat  could  be  brought  back  to  pick  him  up. 
Again  the  first  in  the  water,  and  promptly  followed  by 
detachments  of  his  brigade,  the  shore  was  cleared  at 
once,  and  the  fort  invested  below  just  as  the  other 
troops  were  landing. 

The  fort,  like  its  garrison,  being  weak,  and  no 
known  succor  at  hand,  a  formidable  resistance  could 
not  be  offered.  Some  heavy  pieces  of  artillery  were 
placed  in  battery  and  a  few  shots  exchanged,  when  the 
major-general  asked  Scott  to  name  an  officer  to  bear, 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  his  demand  for  a  surrender. 
Major  Jesup,  of  Scott's  brigade,  was  selected  for  this 
honorable  service,  and  articles  of  capitulation  were 
soon  agreed  upon. 


OHAPTEK    X. 

RTHSTNESTG   FIGHT CHIPPEWA. 

THE  night  had  been  rainy ;  but  a  bright  sun  cheered 
the  invaders  on  the  morning  of  the  glorious  Fourth  of 
July.  To  seek  the  enemy  below,  Scott  was  early  de 
tached  with  his  brigade — the  25th  Infantry,  command 
ed  by  Major  T.  S.  Jesup ;  the  9th  by  Major  H.  Leaven- 
worth,  and  the  llth  by  Major  J.  McMel,  together  with 
Captain  S.  D.  Harris's  troop  of  light  dragoons,  and 
the  light  batteries  under  Major  Hindman,  of  Captains 
E.  Towson  and  Thomas  Biddle  of  Scott's  late  regiment 
of  artillery. 

Early  in  the  march,  a  little  above  Blackrock,  a  con 
siderable  body  of  the  enemy  was  discovered.  It  proved 
to  be  a  corps  of  observation  under  the  command  of  the 


Fourth  of  July — Running  Fight.  125 

Marquess  of  Tweedale.  All  hearts  leaped  with  joy  at 
the  chance  of  doing  something  worthy  of  the  anni 
versary,  and  to  cheer  our  desponding  countrymen  at 
home — something  that  might  ever,  on  that  returning 
day — 

"  Be  in  their  flowing  cups,  freshly  remembered." 

The  events  of  the  day,  however,  proved  most  tanta 
lizing.  An  eager  pursuit  of  sixteen  miles  ensued.  The 
heat  and  dust  were  scarcely  bearable ;  but  not  a  man 
flagged.  All  felt  that  immortal  fame  lay  within  reach. 
The  enemy,  however,  had  the  start  in  the  race  by  many 
minutes ;  but  his  escape  was  only  insured  by  a  number 
of  sluggish  creeks  in  the  way,  each  with  an  ordinary 
bridge,  and  too  much  mud  and  water  to  be  forded  near 
its  mouth.  The  floors  of  those  bridges  were,  in  succes 
sion,  thrown  off  by  the  marquess,  but  he  was  never 
allowed  time  to  destroy  the  sleepers.  Taking  up  po 
sitions,  however,  to  retard  the  relaying  the  planks, 
obliged  Scott  to  deploy  a  part  of  his  column  and  to 
open  batteries.  The  first  bridge,  forced  in  that  way, 
the  chase  was  renewed,  and  so  wTas  the  contest  at  two 
other  bridges,  precisely  in  the  manner  of  the  first  and 
with  the  same  results.  Finally,  toward  sunset,  the 
enemy  were  driven  across  the  Chippewa  River  behind 


126  The  Enemy  Escapes  a  Battle. 

a  strong  tete  de  pont,  wliere  they  met  their  main  army 
under  Major-General  Riall. 

This  running  fight,  of  some  twelve  hours,  was  re 
markable  in  one  circumstance:  in  the  campaigns  of 
the  autobiographer,  it  was  the  first  and  only  time  that 
he  ever  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  force  superior  to 
that  of  the  enemy  in  his  front :  their  relative  numbers 
being,  on  this  occasion,  about  as  four  to  three. 

The  Marquess  of  Tweedale,  a  gallant  soldier,  on  a 
visit  to  the  United  States  soon  after  peace,  made  sev 
eral  complimentary  allusions  to  the  prowess  of  our 
troops  in  the  war,  and  particularly  to  the  events  of  the 
4th  of  July,  1814,  on  the  Niagara — among  them,  that 
he  could  not  account  for  the  impetuosity  of  the  Ameri 
cans,  in  that  pursuit,  till  a  late  hour,  when  some  one 
called  out — it  is  their  National  Anniversary  !  * 

The  proximity  of  Riall  reversed  the  strength  of  the 
antagonists,  and  Scott,  unpursued,  fell  back  a  little  more 

*  Scott  passing  through  London,  in  1815,  to  Paris,  met  the  Marquess 
of  Tweedale  in  the  street,  when  the  parties  kindly  recognized  each  other. 
The  latter  was  on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  Scotland,  and  the  former  for 
France.  Scott  was  assured  of  a  welcome  at  Tester  House,  the  seat  of  the 
marquess,  if  he  should  visit  Scotland.  This  meeting  soon  became  strange 
ly  misrepresented,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  the  great  annoyance 
of  the  parties. 


Skirmishing — Fourth  of  July  Dinner.        127 

than  a  mile,  to  take  up  a  strong  camp  behind  Street's 
Creek,  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  reserve  under  Major- 
General  Brown.  The  junction  took  place  early  in  the 
morning  of  the  5th. 

Brown  lost  no  time  in  giving  orders  to  prepare  the 
materials  for  throwing  a  bridge  across  the  Chippewa, 
some  little  distance  above  the  village  and  the  enemy 
at  its  mouth.  (There  was  no  travelling  ponton  with 
the  army.)  That  work  was  put  under  the  charge  of 
our  able  engineers,  McEee  and  Wood — the  wise  coun 
sellors  of  the  general-in-chief.  This  was  the  labor  of 
the  day.  In  the  mean  time  the  British  militia  and  In 
dians  filled  the  wood  to  our  left  and  annoyed  the  pick 
ets  posted  in  its  edge.  Porter's  militia  were  ordered 
to  dislodge  the  enemy,  and  much  skirmishing  ensued 
between  the  parties. 

The  anniversary  dinner  cooked  for  Scott's  brigade, 
with  many  extras  added  by  him  in  honor  of  the  day, 
happily  came  over  from  Schlosser  on  the  5th,  and  was 
soon  despatched  by  officers  and  men,  who  had  scarcely 
broken  fast  in  thirty-odd  hours. 

To  keep  his  men  in  breath,  he  had  ordered  a  parade 
for  grand  evolutions  in  the  cool  of  the  afternoon.  For 
this  purpose  there  was  belo\\  the  creek,  a  plain  extend- 


128  Battle  of  Chippewa. 

ing  back  from  the  Niagara  of  some  hundreds  of  yards 
in  the  broader  part,  and  a  third  narrower  lower  down. 
From  the  dinner,  without  expecting  a  battle,  though 
fully  prepared  for  one,  Scott  marched  for  this  field. 
The  view  below  from  his  camp  was  obstructed  by  the 
brushwood  that  fringed  the  creek ;  but  when  arrived 
near  the  bridge  at  its  mouth,  he  met  Major-General 
Brown,  coming  in  at  full  gallop,  who,  in  passing,  said 
with  emphasis  :  You  will  have  a  'battle  !  and,  without 
halting,  pushed  on  to  the  rear  to  put  Ripley's  brigade 
in  motion — supposing  that  Scott  was  perfectly  aware 
of  the  near  approach  of  the  entire  British  army  and 
going  out  expressly  to  meet  it.  The  head  of  his 
(Scott's)  column  had  scarcely  entered  the  bridge  before 
it  was  met  by  a  fire,  at  an  easy  distance,  from  nine 
field  guns.  Towson's  battery  quickly  responded  with 
some  effect.  The  column  of  our  infantry,  greatly  elon 
gated  by  the  diminution  of  front,  to  enable  it  to  pass 
the  narrow  bridge,  steadily  advanced,  though  with 
some  loss,  and  battalion  after  battalion  when  over, 
formed  line  to  the  left  and  front,  under  the  continued 
fire  of  the  enemy's  battery.  When  Scott  was  seen  ap 
proaching  the  bridge,  General  Riall,  who  had  dispersed 
+ wice  his  numbers  the  winter  before,  in  his  expedition 


Battle  Continued — A  New  Anniversary.     129 

on  the  American  side,  said :  It  is  nothing  out  a  body  of 
Buffalo  militia  !  But  when  the  bridge  was  passed  in 
fine  style,  under  his  heavy  fire  of  artillery,  he  added 
with  an  oath:  Why,  these  are  regulars!  The  gray 
coats  at  first  deceived  him,  which  Scott  was  obliged  to 
accept,  there  being  no  blue  cloth  in  the  country.  (In 
'compliment  to  the  battle  of  Chippewa,  our  military 
cadets  have  worn  gray  coats  ever  since.)'  Two  hostile 
lines  were  now  in  view  of  each  other,  but  a  little  be 
yond  the  effective  range  of  musketry. 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  model  American  brigade, 
notwithstanding  the  excessive  vigor  and  prowess  exert 
ed  the  day  before,  had  failed  in  the  ardent  desire  to 
engraft  its  name,  by  a  decisive  victory,  on  the  great 
national  anniversary.  The  same  corps  again  confront 
ing  the  enemy,  but  in  an  open  field,  Scott,  riding  rapid 
ly  along  the  line,  threw  out  a  few  short  sentences — 
among  them,  alluding  to  the  day  before,  was  this : 
Let  us  make  a  new  anniversary  for  ourselves!  Not 
finding  his  name  in  the  official  paper  (Gazette)  after 
his  handsome  services  at  the  capture  of  Bastia  and 
Calvi,  early  in  his  career,  Nelson  with  the  spirit  of 
divination  upon  him,  said  :  "  Never  mind  ;  I  will  have 
a  Gazette  of  my  own."  A  little  arrogance,  near  the 
6* 


130  Battle — Nice  Manoeuvring. 

enemy,  wlien  an  officer  is  ready  to  suit  the  action  to 
the  word,  may  be  pardoned  by  his  countrymen.  And 
it  has  often  happened,  if  not  always,  when  Fourths  of 
July  have  fallen  on  Sundays,  that  Chippewa  has  been 
remembered  at  the  celebrations  of  Independence  on 
the  5th  of  July. 

The  brigade  had  scarcely  been  fully  deployed,* 
when  it  was  perceived  that  it  was  outflanked  by  the 
enemy  on  the  plain,  besides  the  invisible  force  that  had 
just  driven  Porter  and  the  militia  out  of  the  wood. 
Critical  manoeuvring  became  necessary  on  the  part  of 
Scott ;  for  the  position  and  intentions  of  Brown,  with 
Kipley  and  Porter,  were,  and  remained  entirely  un 
known  to  him  till  the  battle  was  over.  The  enemy 
continuing  to  advance,  presented  a  new  right  flank 
on  the  widened  plain,  leaving  his  right  wing  in  the 
wood  which  Scott  had  caused  to  be  confronted  by 
Jesup's  battalion,  the  25th  Infantry,  which  leaped  the 
fence,  checked,  and  soon  pushed  the  enemy  toward  the 
rear.  At  the  same  time  having  ordered  that  the  right 
wing  of  the  consolidated  battalion  (9th  and  22d  Infan 
try)  commanded  by  Leavenworth,  should  be  thrown 
forward,  with  Towson's  battery  on  the  extreme  right, 
close  to  the  Niagara,  Scott  flew  to  McNiePs  battalion, 


Decisive  Charge.  131 

the  llth  Infantry,  now  on  the  left,  and  assisted  in 
throwing  forward  its  left  wing.  The  battalions  of 
Leaveiiworth  and  McNiel  thus  formed,  pointed  to  an 
obtuse  angle  in  the  centre  of  the  plain,  with  a  wide  in 
terval  between  them,  that  made  up  for  deficiency  of 
numbers.  To  fire,  each  party  had  halted  more  than 
once,  at  which  the  Americans  had  the  more  deadly 
aim.  At  an  approximation  to  within  sixty  or  seventy 
paces,  the  final  charge  (mutual)  was  commenced.  The 
enemy  soon  came  within  the  obliqued  battalions  of 
Leavenworth  and  MoNiel.  Towson's  fire  was  effec 
tive  from  the  beginning.  At  the  last  moment,  blinded 
by  thick  smoke,  he  was  about  to  lose  his  most  effective 
discharge,  when  Scott,  on  a  tall  charger,  perceiving 
that  the  enemy  had  come  within  the  last  range  of  the 
battery,  caused  a  change  that  enfiladed  many  files  of 
the  opposing  flank.  The  clash  of  bayonets,  at  each  ex 
tremity,  instantly  followed,  when  the  wings  of  the 
enemy  being  outflanked,  and  to  some  extent  doubled 
upon,  were  mouldered  away  like  a  rope  of  sand.  It  is 
not  in  human  nature  that  a  conflict  like  this  should 
last  many  seconds.  The  enemy's  whole  force  broke 
in  quick  succession  and  fled,  leaving  the  field  thickly 
strewn  with  his  dead  and  wounded.  The  victory  was 


132  Pursuit —  Victory  Complete. 

equally  complete  in  front  of  Jesup.  A  hot  pursuit  was 
continued  to  within  half  gunshot  of  the  batteries  at 
Chippewa  Bridge,  to  gather  up  prisoners  and  with 
good  success.  Returning,  Scott  met  Major-General 
Brown  coming  out  of  the  forest,  who,  with  Eipley's 
regulars  and  the  rallied  militia  of  Porter,  had  made  a 
wide  circuit  to  the  left,  intending  to  get  between  the 
enemy  and  the  Chippewa,  and  this  might  have  been 
effected  if  the  battle  had  lasted  a  half  hour  longer ;  but 
suppose  that  Scott  in  the  mean  time  had  been  over 
whelmed  by  superior  numbers ! 

The  term  charge  occurs  several  times  above,  and 
often  in  military  narratives.  A  word  to  explain  its 
professional  meaning  may  be  acceptable.  General 
Moreau,  when  in  America,  remarked  that  in  all  his 
campaigns  he  had  "  never  known  anything  approach 
ing  to  a  general  conflict  of  bayonets ; "  though  perhaps 
in  all  battles  between  infantry,  a  few  files  at  a  time, 
or  small  parts  of  opposing  lines  (as  at  Chippewa)  come 
into  the  deadly  rencounter. 

"  A  charge,  in  military  phrase,  is  said  to  be  made, 
when  either  party  stops  firing,  throws  bayonets  for 
ward,  and  advances  to  the  shock,  whether  the  enemy 
receive  it  or  fly.  An  actual  crossing  of  bayonets, 


Gloom  Dissipated.  133 

therefore,  is  not  indispensable  to  the  idea  of  a  charge. 
To  suppose  it  is,  is  a  mistake.  Another  popular  error 
is,  that  the  parties  come  up  to  the  shock  in  parallel 
lines.  Such  a  case  has  rarely,  if  ever,  occurred.  Each 
commander  always  seeks  by  manoeuvring  to  gain  the 
oblique  position,  and,  if  possible,  to  outflank  his  enemy. 
"With  superior  forces  both  advantages  may  easily  be 
gained ;  but  with  inferior  numbers  the  difficulty  is  ex 
treme.  The  excess  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  can  only 
be  overcome  by  celerity  of  movement,  accuracy,  hardi 
hood,  skill,  and  zeal."  * 

Few  men  now  alive  are  old  enough  to  recall  the 
deep  gloom,  approaching  to  despair,  which  about  this 
time  oppressed  the  whole  American  people — especial 
ly  the  supporters  of  the  war.  The  disasters  on  the 
land  have  been  enumerated,  and  now  the  New  Eng 
land  States  were  preparing  to  hold  a  convention — it 
met  at  Hartford — perhaps  to  secede  from  the  Union 
— possibly  to  take  up  arms  against  it.  Scott's  brigade, 
nearly  all  ISTew  England  men,  were  most  indignant, 
and  this  was  the  subject  of  the  second  of  the  three 
pithy  remarks  made  to  them  by  Scott  just  before  the 

*  This  paragraph  is  taken  from  Mansfield's  life  of  the  autobiographer, 
but  was  originally  furnished  (substantially)  in  the  notes  of  the  latter. 


134  Rejoicings  at  Home. 

final  conflict  at  Chippewa.  Calling  aloud  to  the  gal- 
lant  Major  Hindman,  he  said  :  "  Let  us  put  down  the 
federal  convention  by  beating  the  enemy  in  front. 
There's  nothing  in  the  Constitution  against  that."  * 

History  has  recorded  many  victories  on  a  much 
larger  scale  than  that  of  Chippewa;  but  only  a  few 
that  have  wrought  a  greater  change  in  the  feelings  of 
a  nation.  Everywhere  bonfires  blazed ;  bells  rung  out 
peals  of  joys ;  the  big  guns  responded,  and  the  pulse  of 
Americans  recovered  a  healthy  beat. 

*  The  third,  addressed  to  the  llth  Infantry,  at  the  last  moment,  was 
this  :  The  enemy  say  that  Americans  are  good  at  long  shot ;  but  cannot 
stand  the  cold  iron.  I  call  upon  you  instantly  to  give  the  lie  to  the  slander. 
Charge  I 


CHAPTER    XI. 


INVESTMENT  OF  FORTS BATTLE  OF  NIAGARA  OR 

LTJNDY'S  LANE. 


THE  enemy  being  again  in  the  strong  position  be 
hind  the  Chippewa,  the  preparation  of  materials  foi 
the  bridge  was  renewed  early  on  the  6th,  but  before 
they  were  quite  ready,  Major-General  Riall  decamped ; 
sent  reinforcements  to  his  works  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Niagara,  struck  off  to  the  left  at  Queenstown  and  re 
turned  with  the  remainder  of  his  army  to  Burlington 
Heights  at  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario.  So  it  turned 
out,  as  we  learned,  in  a  day  or  two.  Scott's  brigade 
was  again  despatched  in  pursuit.  He  crossed  the  Chip 
pewa  Bridge  early  on  the  7th  and  reported  from  Queens- 
town  the  ascertained  movements  of  Riall. 

Major -General   Brown  determined   to  attack   the 


136  Forts  Invested — Stratagem. 

forts  (George  and  Messassauga)  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  accordingly  marched  his  whole  force  upon 
them — Scott  always  in  the  lead.  Perhaps  it  had  been 
better,  after  masking  those  works,  to  have  moved  at 
once  upon  Riall.  But  arrangements  had  been  made 
between  the  general-in-chief  and  Commodore  Chauncey 
for  siege  guns  to  be  brought  up  by  our  ships  of  war ; 
for  the  Niagara  army  had  not  a  piece  heavier  than  an 
18-pounder.  The  forts  were  invested  :  Messassauga, 
built  since  McClure  evacuated  George,  the  year  before. 

The  investment  was  maintained  till  the  23d  of 
July,  when  Chauncey  reported  that  he  could  not  com 
ply  with  his  promise.  The  reason  being  that  it  was 
Sir  James  Yeo's  turn  to  hold  the  mastery  of  the  lake. 

Major-General  Brown,  thinking  it  would  be  more 
difficult  to  find  than  to  beat  Riall  in  the  Highlands 
about  the  head  of  the  lake,  now  resolved  to  try  the 
effect  of  a  stratagem  to  draw  him  out  of  his  snug  posi 
tion.  Accordingly,  the  Americans  on  the  morning  of 
the  24th  assumed  a  panic ;  broke  up  camp  and  retreat 
ed  rapidly  up  the  river.  There  was  only  a  moment's 
halt  at  Queenstown — to  throw  the  sick  across  into  hos 
pital  at  Lewiston,  until  all  were  securely  encamped 
above  the  Chippewa.  The  following  was  to  be  a  day 


False  Jtep&rt.  137 

of  rest  and  to  give  Eiall  time  to  come  down  in  pursuit. 
It  was  further  arranged  that  Scott's  brigade,  reenforced, 
should  early  in  the  morning  of  the  26th  return  rapidly 
upon  Queenstown,  and  if  the  stratagem  proved  a  fail 
ure,  then  to  trace  up  Biall  and  attack  him  wherever 
found.  Consequently,  it  was  intended  that  the  25th 
of  July  should  be  to  the  army  a  day  of  relaxation — 
without  other  duties  than  cleaning  of  arms,  the  wash 
ing  of  clothes,  and  bathing,  except  that  Scott's  troops 
were  ordered  to  fill  their  haversacks  with  cooked  pro 
visions. 

While  all  were  thus  unbuttoned  and  relaxed,  a 
militia  colonel,  whose  regiment  occupied  several  posts 
on  the  American  side  of  the  river,  sent  a  specific  report 
to  Major-General  Brown  that  the  enemy  had  thrown 
across,  from  Queenstown,  to  Lewiston,  a  strong  body 
of  troops,  and  as  it  could  not  be  to  disturb  the  small 
hospital  at  the  latter  place,  Brown  concluded  the  move 
ment  had  in  view  the  destruction  of  our  magazines  at 
Schlosser,  and  stopping  the  stream  of  supplies  descend 
ing  from  Buffalo.  Of  course,  Riall  must  have  come 
down  from  the  Highlands ;  but  as  one  of  our  brigades 
had  beaten  his  entire  force,  twenty  days  before,  it  was 
difficult  to  believe  he  had  risked  a  division  of  his  weak- 


138  Meeting  of  Superior  Numbers. 

ened  army  so  near  to  the  superior  numbers  of  Brown  ; 
for  not  a  rumor  had  readied  the  latter  that  Riall  had 
been  reenforced.  Indeed  it  was  only  known,  from 
Chauncey,  at  Sackett's  Harbor,  that  Sir  James  Yeo 
had  possession  of  the  lake ;  for  Brown's  means  of  secret 
intelligence,  if  any,  were  of  no  avail.  In  this  state  of 
ignorance,  but  confidence  in  the  report  received,  Brown 
ordered  Scott,  with  his  command,  to  march  below,  to 
find  the  enemy  and  to  beat  him.  It  was  now  in  the 
afternoon,  and  all  had  dined.  In  less  than  thirty 
minutes,  the  splendid  column — horse,  artillery,  and  in 
fantry — had  passed  the  bridge  at  the  village  of  Chippe- 
wa,  and  was  in  full  march  for  Queenstown  (nine  miles 
below),  intending  no  halt  short  of  that  point.  But 
Vhomme  propose  et  Dieu  dispose.  Turning  the  sweep 
the  river  makes  a  mile  or  two  above  the  Falls,  a  horse 
man  in  scarlet  was  from  time  to  time  discovered  peep 
ing  out  from  the  wood  on  the  left,  and  lower  down,  the 
advance  guard,  with  which  Scott  rode,  came  upon  a 
house  (Forsyth's)  from  which  two  British  officers  fled 
just  in  time  to  escape  capture.  Only  two  inhabitants 
had  been  seen  in  the  march,  and  these,  from  ignorance 
or  loyalty,  said  nothing  that  did  not  mislead.  The 
population  was  hostile  to  Americans. 


Battle  of  Niagara  or  Lundrfs  Lane.          139 

From  such  indications  it  seemed  evident  that  there 
was  a  corps  of  observation  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
Scott  so  reported  to  headquarters;  but  from  the  in 
formation  on  which  he  had  advanced,  it  could  only  be 
a  small  body,  detached  from  an  inferior  army  that  had 
committed  the  folly  of  sending  at  least  half  of  its  num 
bers  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  There  was,  there 
fore,  110  halt  and  no  slackening  in  the  march  of  the 
Americans.  Passing  a  thick  skirt  of  wood  that  crossed 
the  road  nearly  opposite  to  the  Falls,  the  head  of  the 
column  emerged  into  an  opening  on  the  left  in  full- 
view,  and  in  easy  range  of  a  line  of  battle  drawn  up  in 
Lundy's  Lane,  more  extensive  than  that  defeated  at 
Chippewa. 

Riall's  whole  force  was  in  the  lane ;  for,  it  turned 
out  not  only  not  a  man  had  been  thrown  over  the  river, 
but  that  the  night  before  Lieutenant-General  Sir  Gor 
don  Drummond  had  arrived  by  the  lake  with  a  heavy 
reinforcement,  and  had  pushed  forward  his  battalions 
(sixteen  miles)  as  they  successively  landed.  One  was 
already  in  line  of  battle,  and  the  others  were  coming 
up  by  forced  marches. 

The  aches  in  broken  bones  feelingly  remind  the 
autobiographer  of  the  scene  he  is  describing,  and  after 


140  Battle  Continued. 

the  lapse  of  nearly  fifty  years  lie  cannot  suppress  his 
indignation  at  the  blundering,  stupid  report  made  by 
the  militia  colonel  to  his  confiding  friend  Major-Gen 
eral  Brown. 

Jesup's  battalion  (the  25th),  marching  in  the  rear, 
was  detached  to  the  right,  covered  by  brushwood,  be 
tween  the  road  and  the  river,  to  turn  the  enemy's  left. 
Hindman,  with  Towson's  and  Thomas  Biddle's  bat 
teries,  the  9th  and  22d  consolidated  under  Colonel 
Brady,  and  the  llth  (McNiel's)  were,  as  they  preceded 
Jesup,  deployed  to  the  left  in  the  open  space,  when  a 
tremendous  fire  of  all  arms  responded  to  that  of  the 
enemy.  At  the  discovery  of  the  formidable  line,  Scott 
despatched  another  staff  officer  to  the  general-in-chief, 
who  was  still  in  his  camp  (nearly  three  miles  off)  with 
a  promise  to  maintain  his  ground  till  the  arrival  of  the 
reserve.  Nothing  was  more  difficult. 

At  the  moment  of  this  promise — whether  it  might 
not  be  his  duty  to  fall  back  ?  was  rapidly  considered. 
But  for  some  particular  circumstances  that  alternative 
should  have  been  adopted ;  but  the  brigade  was,  from 
the  first,  under  a  heavy  fire,  and  could  not  be  with 
drawn  without  a  hot  pursuit.  Being  but  half  seasoned 
to  war,  some  danger  of  confusion  in  its  ranks,  with  the 


Battle  Continued.  141 

certainty  of  throwing  the  whole  reserve  (coming  up) 
into  a  panic,  were  to  be  apprehended ;  for  an  extrava 
gant  opinion  generally  prevailed  throughout  the  army 
in  respect  to  the  prowess — nay,  invincibility  of  Scott's 
brigade. 

By  standing  fast,  the  salutary  impression  was  made 
upon  the  enemy  that  the  whole  American  reserve  was 
at  hand  and  would  soon  assault  his  flanks.  Emboldened, 
however,  a  little  by  its  non-arrival,  an  attempt  was  made 
to  turn  Scott's  left.  The  llth,  that  occupied  that  posi 
tion,  threw  forward  (under  cover  of  a  clump  of  trees) 
its  right,  and  drove  the  enemy  beyond  reach. 

Jesup,  too,  on  our  right,  had  brilliant  success.  In 
making  the  sweep  around  the  enemy's  left  flank,  he 
captured  Major-General  Riall  and  cut  off  a  segment  of 
his  line.  Sir  Gordon  Drummond,  also,  was  for  a  mo 
ment  a  prisoner,  but  he  contrived  to  escape  in  the  dusk 
of  the  evening.  Hindman's  artillery,  Brady's  battalion, 
consolidated  with  Leavenworth's,  had  suffered  and  in 
flicted  great  losses  under  a  direct  fire,  un remitted,  till 
dusk.  The  llth,  partially  covered,  suffered  less. 

At  this  moment  Major-General  Brown  and  staff 
came  up  a  little  ahead  of  the  reserve — of  course,  each 
with  the  bandage  of  night  on  his  eyes  •  for  it  was  now 


142  Battle  Continued  in  the  Night. 

dark — after  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Scott  gave 
the  general  the  incidents  of  the  battle,  and  the  posi 
tions  of  the  hostile  forces  on  the  field.  It  was  known 
from  prisoners  that  further  reinforcements,  from  be 
low,  were  soon  expected.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be 
lost.  By  desire,  Scott  suggested  that  the  heaviest  bat 
talion  in  the  reserve,  the  21st,  which  he  had  instructed 
at  Buffalo,  and  was  now  commanded  by  Colonel  Miller, 
should,  supported  by  the  remainder  of  Ripley's  brigade, 
charge  up  the  lane,  take  the  enemy  in  flank,  and  roll 
his  whole  crumbled  line  back  into  the  wood. 

To  favor  this  important  movement,  Scott,  with  the 
added  force  of  Jesup,  now  back  in  line,  ordered  the 
attack,  in  front,  to  be  redoubled ;  guided  Brown,  with 
Miller,  through  the  darkness,  to  the  foot  of  the  lane, 
and  then  rejoined  his  own  forces.  Here  he  was  assist 
ed  by  the  fresh  batteries  which  came  up  with  the  re 
serve.  The  enemy,  thus  furiously  assailed  in  front,  re 
mained  ignorant  of  Miller's  approach  till  the  bayonets 
of  his  column  began  to  be  felt.  The  rout  was  early 
and  complete,  a  battery  captured,  and  many  prisoners 
made. 

Positions  on  the  field  had  become  reversed.  The 
American  line,  reformed,  now  crossed  that  originally 


Incidents  of  the  Battle.  143 

occupied  by  the  enemy  at  right  angles,  and  facing  the 
wood,  with  backs  to  the  river.  Here  it  took  a  defen 
sive  stand.  The  British  slowly  rallied  at  some  distance 
in  front.  Being  again  in  collected  force  and  in  return 
ing  confidence,  they  cautiously  advanced  to  recover  the 
lost  field  and  their  battery — the  horses  of  which  had 
been  killed  or  crippled  before  the  retreat.  By  degrees 
the  low  commands,  halt,  dress,  forward  !  often  repeat 
ed,  became  more  and  more  audible  in  the  awful  still 
ness  of  the  moment.  At  length  a  dark  line  could  be 
seen,  at  a  distance,  perhaps,  of  sixty  paces.  Scott  re 
solved  to  try  an  experiment.  Leaving  his  brigade  on 
the  right,  in  line,  he  formed  a  small  column  of  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and,  at  its  head,  advanced 
rapidly  to  pierce  the  advancing  enemy's  line,  then  to 
turn  to  the  right,  and  envelop  his  extreme  left.  If 
pierced,  in  the  dark,  there  seemed  no  doubt  the  whole 
would  fall  back,  and  so  it  turned  out.  Scott  explained 
his  intentions  and  forcibly  cautioned  his  own  brigade, 
and  Ripley's  on  his  left,  not  to  fire  upon  the  little  col 
umn  ;  but  the  instant  the  latter  came  in  conflict  with, 
and  broke  the  enemy,  Ripley's  men  opened  fire  upon 
its  rear  and  left  flank,  and  caused  it  to  break  without 


144  Incidents  Continued. 

securing  a  prisoner.  The  column  resumed  its  place  in 
line,  and  another  pause  in  the  battle  ensued. 

After  a  while,  a  second  advance  of  the  enemy  was 
made  with  the  same  slowness  as  before.  When  within 
short  musket-shot,  there  was  an  unexpected  halt,  in 
stantly  followed  by  the  crack  of  small  arms  and  the 
deafening  roar  of  cannon.  Each  party  seemed  resolved 
to  rest  the  hope  of  victory  on  its  fire.  The  welkin  was 
in  a  blaze  with  shells  and  rockets.  Though  both  armies 
suffered  greatly,  the  enemy  suffered  most.  The  scene, 
perhaps,  including  accessories,  has  never  been  sur 
passed.  Governor  Tompkins,  with  a  keen  perception 
of  its  splendor,  said,  in  presenting  a  sword  of  honor  to 
Scott :  "  The  memorable  conflict  on  the  plains  of  Chip- 
pewa,  and  the  appalling  night-battle  on  the  Heights  of 
Niagara,  are  events  which  have  added  new  celebrity 
to  the  spots  where  they  happened,  heightening  the 
majesty  of  the  stupendous  cataract,  by  combining  with 
its  natural,  all  the  force  of  the  moral  sublime." 

It  was  impossible  that  this  conflict  should  be  en 
dured  for  more  than  a  very  few  minutes.  The  lines  at 
some  points  were  separated  by  only  eight  or  ten  paces. 
Nothing  but  a  deep,  narrow  gully  intervened  in  front 
of  the  25th  Infantry.  Scott,  inquiring  of  the  com- 


Heroism  in  the  Ranks — Scott  HOTS  de  Combat.    145 

mander  (Jesup)  about  a  wound  (in  the  hand)  heard  a 
call  in  the  ranks — Cartridges!  At  the  same  moment 
a  man  reeling  to  the  ground,  responded — Cartridges  in 
my  "box!  The  two  commanders  flew  to  his  succor. 
The  noble  fellow  had  become  a  corpse  as  he  fell.  In 
the  next  second  or  two  Scott,  for  a  time,  as  insensible, 
lay  stretched  at  his  side,  being  prostrated  by  an  ounce 
musket  ball  through  the  left  shoulder  joint.  He  had 
been  twice  dismounted  and  badly  contused,  in  the  side, 
by  the  rebound  of  a  cannon  ball,  some  hours  before. 
Two  of  his  men  discovering  that  there  was  yet  life, 
moved  him  a  little  way  to  the  rear,  that  he  might  not 
be  killed  on  the  ground,  and  placed  his  head  behind  a 
tree — his  feet  from  the  enemy.  This  had  scarcely  been 
done,  when  he  revived  and  found  that  the  enemy  had 
again  abandoned  the  field.  Unable  to  hold  up  his 
head  from  the  loss  of  blood  and  anguish,  he  was  taken 
in  an  ambulance  to  the  camp  across  the  Chippewa, 
when  the  wound  was  stanched  and  dressed. 

On  leaving  the  field  he  did  not  know  that  Major- 
General  Brown,  also  wounded,  had  preceded  him.  By 
seniority  the  command  of  the  army  now  devolved  on 
Brigadier-General  Kipley.  It  must  then  have  been 
about  midnight.  Ripley,  from  some  unknown  cause, 


146       The  Defeated  Enemy  Claim  the  Victory. 

became  alarmed,  and  determined,  in  spite  of  dissuasion, 
to  abandon  the  field,  trophies,  and  all.  The  principal 
officers  despatched  a  messenger  to  bring  back  Scott, 
but  found  him  utterly  prostrate.  Toward  day,  some 
fragments  of  the  enemy,  seeking  the  main  body,  crossed 
the  quiet  field,  and  learning  from  the  wounded  that  the 
Americans  had  flown,  hastened  to  overtake  Lieutenant- 
General  Sir  Gordon  Drummond  below,  who  returned, 
"bivouacked  on  the  field,  and  claimed  the  victory ! 


CHAPTER    XII. 

ffORS    DE    COMBAT PRINCETON    COLLEGE PHILADELPHIA 

BALTIMORE WASHINGTON. 

THE  following  morning  (July  26)  Scott — for  the 
next  forty-one  years  a  major-general — embarked  for 
Buffalo,  with  some  thirteen  officers  of  his  brigade,  all 
badly  wounded.  Among  these  were  two  of  his  three 
staff  officers — Brigade-Major  Smith,  and  Aide-de-Camp 
"Worth;  Colonel  Brady,  one  of  the  best  soldiers  and 
men  of  his  day,  etc.,  etc.  The  rowboat  was  large  and 
unwieldy,  and  the  soldiers  (militiamen)  selected  as 
oarsmen,  feeble  and  inexperienced;  for  Scott  would 
not  allow  any  man,  effective  in  the  ranks,  to  volunteer 
for  the  service.  Two  of  the  consequences  were  that  on 
leaving  the  mouth  of  the  Chippewa  the  boat  narrowly 


148  Sojourn  at  Batavia. 

escaped  passing  over  the  Falls,  and  next,  the  row  up 
the  river  was  most  tedious  and  distressing.  The  rest 
at  Buffalo  was  short,  and  also  at  "Williamsville,  eleven 
miles  east.  Here  Scott  was  joined  by  Major-General 
Riall,  badly  wounded  when  captured,  and  his  friend 
(worse  wounded)  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  Moryllion 
Wilson,*  one  of  the  Chippewa  prisoners. 

These  officers  Scott  placed  on  formal  parole  and  ob 
tained  for  them,  from  Government,  as  a  special  favor 
to  himself,  permission  to  return  to  England,  after  all 
like  indulgences  had  ceased  on  the  part  of  each  belli 
gerent. 

His  forced  sojourn  was  longer  at  Batavia,  in  the 

*  This  gallant  officer,  always  (since)  an  invalid  and  friend  of  Scott,  who 
was,  in  the  time  of  William  IV,  in  the  household  of  the  queen,  and  since 
in  the  government  of  Chelsea  Hospital,  still  lives.  He  invested  his  little 
savings  and  wife's  dower  in  Mississippi  bonds,  repudiated,  mainly,  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  Davis.  It  was  Scott's  strong  statement  of  this  interesting  case, 
at  the  time,  in  a  published  article,  that  brought  upon  him  afterward  the 
persecutions  of  Mr.  Davis  as  Mr.  Pierce's  Secretary  of  War.  When  it  ig 
added,  upon  knowledge,  that  the  statements  of  Sir  Phineas  Biall  and  Sir 
John  Moryllion  Wilson,  on  their  return  home,  contributed  not  a  little  to 
the  liberal  instructions  given  to  the  British  Commissioners  who  signed  the 
Treaty  of  Ghent,  perhaps  it  may  not  be  extravagant  or  too  late  to  say, 
that  generous  Americans  should  make  up,  to  Wilson's  family,  their  losses 
by  the  Mississippi  repudiation.  Our  distinguished  countryman,  George 
Peabody,  London,  is  their  friend. 


4  Ovation — Convalescent.  149 

comfortable  house  of  his  friend,  Mr.  Brisbane,  where 
he  was  well  nursed  by  the  kindness  of  his  excellent 
sister,  afterward  Mrs.  Carey.  But  Batavia,  exhausted 
of  its  comforts,  became,  in  August,  very  sickly,  and 
Scott's  wounds  were  no  better.  For  the  same  reason 
that  he  took  the  poor  oarsmen,  at  Chippewa,  he  had 
selected  an  invalid  surgeon  for  himself  and  wounded 
companions,  who  had  not  strength  for  hospital  duty, 
and  hardly  enough  to  half  dress  the  wounds  of  three 
officers  twice  a  day.  Without  change,  it  became  evi 
dent  that  the  senior  could  not  live.  He  procured  a 
litter,  and  hired  eight  men  (two  reliefs)  to  bear  him  on 
it;  but  some  of  the  principal  citizens  drove  off  the 
hirelings,  and  shouldered  the  litter  themselves.  It  was 
thus,  more  than  half  dead,  he  was  taken  in  triumph, 
by  the  gentlemen  of  the  country,  who  relieved  each 
other  at  the  edge  of  every  town,  some  seventy  miles,  to 
the  house  at  Geneva,  of  another  dear  friend,  the  Hon 
orable  John  Mcholas. 

Here,  besides  the  fine  air,  were  "  all  appliances  and 
means  to  boot,"  needed  by  Scott,  except  the  higher 
skill  in  surgery.  To  obtain  this  he  was  most  anxious 
to  reach  Doctor  Physick,  at  Philadelphia. 

Having  by  the  kind  nursing  of  Judge  Xicholas's 


150  Grand  Scene  at  Princeton. 

family  gained  some  strength,  the  new  major-general 
was  enabled  to  travel  in  an  easy  carriage,  on  a  mat 
tress,  to  Albany,  where  honors,  as  elsewhere,  on  the 
road,  awaited  him,  and  thence  he  had  the  benefit  of 
steam  to  New  York.  Here  another  long  journey,  on  a 
mattress,  was  to  be  undertaken.  At  Princeton  College 
(Nassau  Hall)  a  very  interesting  scene  occurred.  The 
invalid  chanced  to  arrive  at  that  seat  of  learning  on 
Commencement  day  in  the  midst  of  its  exercises,  and 
made  a  short  halt  for  rest.  He  was  scarcely  placed  on 
a  bed  when  a  deputation  from  the  Trustees  and  Faculty 
did  him  the  honor  to  bear  him,  almost  by  main  strength, 
to  the  platform  of  their  body.  This  was  in  the  vener 
able  church  where  thousands  of  literary  and  scientific 
degrees  had  been  conferred  on  pupils  from  all  parts  of 
the  Union.  The  floor  and  galleries  were  filled  to 
overflowing  with  much  of  the  intelligence,  beauty,  and 
fashion  of  a  wide  circle  of  the  country. 

All  united  in  clamorous  greetings  to  the  young 
wounded  soldier  (bachelor),  the  only  representative 
that  they  had  seen  of  a  successful,  noble  army. 

The  emotion  was  overpowering.  Seated  on  the 
platform,  with  the  authorities,  he  had  scarcely  recov 
ered  from  that  burst  of  enthusiasm,  when  he  was  again 


Philadelphia — Dr.  Physick.  151 

assailed  with  all  the  powers  of  oratory.  The  valedic 
tory  had  been  assigned  to  the  gifted  and  accomplished 
Bloomfield  Mcllvaine,  of  the  graduating  class,  the 
younger  brother  of  the  present  most  venerable  bishop 
of  Ohio.  He  had,  without  reference  to  any  particular 
individual  taken  as  his  theme,  the  duty  of  a  patriot 
citizen  in  time  of  war  j  in  which  soldiership  was  made 
most  prominent.  In  a  whisper,  he  obtained  at  the 
moment,  permission  of  the  Faculty  to  give  to  the  whole 
address,  by  a  few  slight  changes,  a  personal  application. 
Here  again  there  was  a  storm  of  applause,  no  doubt  in 
the  greater  part  given  to  the  orator.*  Finally  the 
honorary  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  conferred  on  the 
soldier,  rounded  off  his  triumphs  of  the  day. 

Flattered  and  feeble,  the  soldier  at  length  reached 
Philadelphia.  Dr.  Physick,  eminent  as  a  physician, 
more  eminent  as  a  surgeon,  and  not  less  distinguished 
as  a  patriot,  left  a  sickroom,  for  the  first  time  in 
months,  with  his  most  accomplished  and  amiable 
nephew,  Dr.  Dorsey,  to  visit  and  heal  his  new  patient. 
Before  this  great  effort  of  science  had  been  accom 
plished,  Scott,  in  the  command  of  the  Philadelphia 

*  Though  Mr.  Mcllvaine  died  very  young,  it  was  not  before  he  had 
greatly  distinguished  himself  at  the  Philadelphia  Bar. 


152        Baltimore — Dr.  Gibson — Gold  Medal. 

Department  (district)  was,  early  in  October,  ere  he 
could  walk  or  mount  a  horse  without  help,  ordered 
to  the  district  of  Baltimore,  then  threatened  with 
another  joint  attack  by  the  army  and  fleet  which  had 
been  so  handsomely  repulsed  the  month  before.  Here, 
Dr.  Gibson,  another  eminent  surgeon,  at  the  end  of 
some  months,  finally  finished  the  case  so  happily  com 
menced,  without  fee  or  reward,  in  Philadelphia. 

Scott  found  a  large  force  of  militia  assembled  for 
the  defence  of  Baltimore,  which  he  was  glad  to  dis 
charge  as  the  winter  approached  and  the  danger  sub- 
Bided.  He  visited,  in  the  course  of  the  winter,  "Wash 
ington  and  Fredericksburg,  threatened  by  the  enemy, 
and,  as  at  all  the  points  further  north,  was  handsomely 
greeted  and  distinguished.  But  the  crowning  honor 
was  conferred  upon  him  in  a  resolution  penned  by  the 
accomplished  and  rising  statesman,  William  Lowndes — 
in  which  it  is  ordered  that  a  gold  medal  "  be  struck, 
with  suitable  emblems  and  devices,  and  presented  to 
Major-General  Scott  in  testimony  of  the  high  sense 
entertained  by  Congress  of  his  distinguished  services 
in  the  successive  conflicts  of  Chippewa  and  Niagara 
(or  Lundy's  Lane),  and  of  his  uniform  gallantry  and 
good  conduct  in  sustaining  the  reputation  of  the  arms 


Honored  by  Congress — Board  of  Tactics.      153 

of  the  United  States"  It  is  believed  that  the  second 
clause  of  this  resolution  contains  a  compliment  not  be 
stowed  by  Congress  on  any  other  officer  whatever. 

Early  in  December,  and  before  he  had  visited 
Washington,  inquiries  were  made  of  him  and  his 
physician,  whether  he  could  bear  the  journey  to  New 
Orleans,  in  order  to  assist  Major-General  Jackson  in 
the  defence  of  the  Mississippi  delta.  Dr.  Gibson  re 
plied  that  the  principal  wound  of  his  patient  was 
still  open,  requiring  the  most  critical  treatment,  and 
moreover  that  he  had  not  yet  the  strength  to  sustain  a 
long  journey.  Thus  the  soldier  of  the  Niagara  lost  the 
opportunity  of  sharing  in  Jackson's  brilliant  victories 
near  New  Orleans.  He  might  in  the  beginning  of  the 
campaign,  when  he  preferred  the  Northern  frontier, 
have  gone  South  if  he  had  so  chosen.  But,  as  is  said 
in  Rasselas,  "  No  man  can,  at  the  same  time  fill  his 
cup  from  the  source  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  Nile." 

Hi  a  headquarters  remained  in  Baltimore.  When 
his  health  had  improved  a  little,  he  was  called  twice 
to  Washington  for  consultation  on  plans  of  campaign 
for  1815,  and  under  a  resolution  of  Mr.  Lowndes — 
who,  though  he  "  never  set  a  squadron  in  the  field," 
and  experimentally  knew  nothing  of  "  the  division  of 


154  Treaty  of  Peace. 

a  battle,"  was,  as  his  correspondence  with  Scott  showed, 
well  acquainted  with  the  subject — the  latter  was  made 
president  of  a  board  of  tactics,  with,  as  associates,  Brig 
adier-General  Swift,  Colonels  Fenwick,  Drayton,  and 
Gumming. 

About  the  same  time  he  was  appointed  president  of 
a  court  of  inquiry  in  the  case  of  Brigadier-General 
"Winder.  Both  bodies  sometimes  met,  at  different 
hours,  the  same  day.  The  treaty  of  peace  arrived 
before  the  tactics  were  quite  finished.  The  war  was 
at  an  end.  Scott's  breast  was  violently  agitated  by 
opposite  currents  of  feeling — joy  for  the  country,  whose 
finances  were  exhausted ;  disappointment  at  being  cut 
off  from  another  campaign  in  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
general;  for  it  was  in  contemplation  to  confer  that 
grade  on  Brown,  Jackson,  and  himself. 


CHAPTEK    XIII. 

REDUCTION   OF    THE   ARMY VISIT   TO    EUROPE ENGLAND 

FRANCE. 

THE  army  had  now  to  be  reduced  to  a  peace  estab 
lishment — from,  nominally,  some  sixty-five  thousand, 
to  ten  thousand  men ;  that  is,  we  had  officers  for  the 
larger  number,  but  the  regiments,  as  in  the  campaigns, 
were  still  skeletons.  The  reduction  could  not  fail  to 
fall  heavily  on  the  commissioned  officers,  as  less  than 
one  in  six  could  be  retained  in  service. 

The  board,  ordered  for  this  painful  duty  met  in 
May,  1815,  and  consisted  of  the  six  general  officers 
previously  selected  by  the  President  for  the  new  estab 
lishment,  viz. :  Major-Generals  Brown  and  Jackson, 
with  four  brigadiers,  each  a  major-general  by  brevet — 


156  Reduction  of  the  Army. 

Scott,  Gaines,  Macomb,  and  Kipley.  Jackson  and 
Gaines  did  not  appear  at  all,  and  Brown  arrived  after 
the  board  had  made  good  progress  in  its  labors.  In 
the  mean  time  Scott  had  presided. 

Mr.  Monroe,  since  the  previous  autumn,  had  been 
alternately  Secretary  of  State  and  acting  Secretary  of 
War,  or  the  reverse.  Wise,  firm,  patriotic,  and  inde 
fatigable  in  the  performance  of  every  duty,  his  strength 
at  length  gave  way.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
the  Honorable  Alexander  J.  Dallas,  without  neglecting 
one  of  its  duties  became  acting  Secretary  of  War,  and 
it  was  under  his  judicious  instructions  that  the  board 
reduced  the  army.  He  it  was,  also,  who  put  the  new 
establishment  in  operation  as  smoothly  as  if  he  had 
been  all  his  life  a  soldier.  The  autobiographer  has 
known  men  as  able  as  Mr.  Dallas,  but  never  one  who 
combined  so  much  talent  for  the  despatch  of  business, 
with  the  graces  of  a  gentleman  and  scholar. 

At  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace  there  was 
a  strong  inclination  on  the  part  of  some  members  of 
Congress  to  make  Scott  Secretary  of  War,  which  he 
discouraged,  emphatically,  and  next  to  engage  him  to 
act  in  that  capacity,  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  Secre 
tary,  Mr.  Crawford,  from  his  mission  to  France.  This 


Sails  for  Europe.  157 

proposition  he  also  declined  from  a  feeling  of  delicacy 
toward  his  seniors,  Major-Generals  Brown  and  Jack 
son,  who  would,  nominally,  have  been  under  the  com 
mand  of  the  acting  secretary. 

At  length,  charged  with  limited  diplomatic  func 
tions,  for  the  execution  of  which  on  his  return  home, 
he  was  handsomely  complimented  by  the  Executive, 
Scott  sailed  for  Europe,  July  9,  1815,  before  the  news 
of  the  battle  of  Waterloo  had  reached  America.  That 
great  event  burst  upon  him  on  the  arrival  (in  eighteen 
days)  at  Liverpool,  together  with  the  astounding  fact 
that  Napoleon  was  a  prisoner  of  war  in  an  English 
port.  After  a  partial  glance  at  England,  Scott  hasten 
ed  to  cross  the  channel  to  see  the  assembled  troops  of 
Europe,  for  la  lelle  France  did  not  then  belong  to 
Frenchmen.  A  great  nation,  exhausted  by  the  vic 
tories  of  mad  ambition,  had,  in  its  turn,  become  con 
quered  and  subdued. 

It  was  authentically  ascertained  that  the  foreign 
armies  in  France  amounted  to  five  hundred  thousand 
men,  besides  another  hundred  thousand  hovering  about 
the  frontiers.  Nearly  all  these  troops  Scott  saw  re 
viewed  at  different  points. 

Dipping  a  little  into  society — French,  Dutch,  Ger- 


158  Galleries  and  Halls  of  the  Louvre. 

man,  and  Italian,  as  well  as  English  and  Scotch — when 
returning  homeward ; — visiting  theatres  and  libraries ; 
glancing  at  the  wonders  of  architecture,  sculpture,  and 
painting ; — seeing  a  little  of  the  interior  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  and  paying  devotion  to  many  scenes  of 
historic  fame — not  one  of  which  objects  need  be  here 
described,  first,  because  that  has  been  done  by  scores 
of  better  pens ;  and  next,  because  this  is  not  a  book  of 
travels — Scott  recrossed  the  Atlantic  in  1816,  a  little 
improved  both  in  knowledge  and  patriotism. 

There  were,  however,  a  few  incidents  in  his  rapid 
tour,  a  slight  notice  of  which  (the  greater  number 
being  more  or  less  connected  with  America)  may  be 
interesting  to  his  countrymen. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  the  American  to  be  almost 
daily  in  the  galleries  and  halls  of  the  Louvre,  for 
weeks,  immediately  preceding  the  restoration  of  the 
foreign  objects  of  the  fine  arts — trophies  of  French 
victories — where  the  frequent  spectacle  of  emperors, 
kings,  princes,  dukes,  marshals,  and  the  rest  of  the 
elite  of  Europe,  male  and  female,  were  seen  passing 
ajlong,  as  if  in  review,  admiring  the  chefs-d'ceuvre  to 
the  right  and  left.  First  came  Alexander,  as  affable 
and  courteous  as  a  candidate  for  office,  and  his  brother 


Mite  of  Europe — Female  Artists.  159 

emperor,  Francis,  grave  to  sadness.  He  had  received 
heavy  afflictions  from  the  arms  of  France ;  had  shifted 
sides  at  a  critical  moment,  making  his  daughter  a 
political  widow,  and  his  grandson,  Napoleon  II.,  an 
alien  to  France.  These  were  ample  grounds  for  shame 
and  sorrow.  The  King  of  Prussia,  too,  had  his  griefs ; 
was  glum,  incapable  of  any  lively  emotion,  and  goaded 
by  his  people  to  acts  of  revenge.  Old  Blucher,  always 
by  his  side,  had  made  secret  preparations  for  blowing 
up  the  bridge  of  Jena,  a  beautiful  object  of  art  and  of 
the  greatest  value  to  Parisians.  Baron  Humboldt,  long 
a  resident  of  Paris,  and  master  of  the  civilization  of 
the  age ; — high  in  the  pride  of  all  Prussians,  and  the 
associate  of  crowned  heads,  hastened  to  the  king  and 
implored  that  the  hand  of  the  barbarian  might  be 
stayed — adding,  if  not,  he  would,  in  shame,  renounce 
his  country  for  ever.  The  bridge  was  saved  by  a  few 
minutes. 

During  the  weeks  in  question,  no  person,  born  in 
France,  was  seen  in  the  Louvre,  save  a  few  female 
artists  mounted  on  high  steps,  busily  engaged  in  copy 
ing  some  of  the  master  paintings  before  their  early  de 
parture.  These  patriotes  did  not  condescend  to  glance 
at  the  moving  world  below — all  enemies  of  France. 


160  Corinthian  Horses. 

Even  the  passing  compliments  of  Alexander  met  with 
no  response  from  one  of  them  in  word  or  look. 

The  dismounting  of  the  Corinthian  horses  from  the 
triumphal  arch,  in  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  to  be  sent 
back  to  Yenice,  was  also  witnessed.  On  this  occasion, 
the  autobiographer  said  to  his  friend  standing  by  him, 
the  Honorable  Thomas  Boiling  Robertson — a  descend 
ant  of  Pocohontas,  a  member  of  Congress  from  Louisi 
ana,  and  otherwise  distinguished — "  Yery  well ;  these 
wonders  in  bronze,  have  already  made  journeys  and 
changed  masters  several  times,  and  as 

*  Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way,' 

they,  may,  in  time,  adorn  the  capital  of  our  country." 
That  prediction  has  already  been  sadly  defeated  by  the 
existing  rebellion  in  the  United  States ! 

Scott  corresponded  with,  though  he  failed  to  see, 
the  venerable  Kosciuszko;  —  spent  some  days  at  La 
Grange,  on  a  visit  to  General  La  Fayette,  dear  to  all 
Americans.  He  made  the  acquaintance  of  several  of 
Rochainbeau's  officers  who  were  at  the  surrender  of 
Cornwallis  —  among  them  the  venerable  and  distin 
guished  Count  de  Segur,  the  elder,  author  of  the  me 
moirs  of  the  greatest  interest,  in  three  volumes,  the 


Humboldt — Barbe  Marbois.  161 

second  of  which  is  devoted  to  America.  The  Baron 
Humboldt,  who  had  visited  the  United  States,  and  who 
took  a  lively  interest  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  did  the 
autobiographer  the  honor  to  make  him  several  visits 
of  usefulness — to  spread  his  acquaintance  among  liter 
ary  and  military  men — himself  a  man  of  the  world, 
and  a  most  instructive  companion.  Master  of  many 
languages,  he,  in  rapid  conversation,  unconsciously, 
mixed  up  several  of  them  in  the  most  amusing  man 
ner. 

Another  highly  interesting  acquaintance,  made  in 
Paris,  was  Barbe  Marbois,  who  accompanied,  as  con 
sul-general,  the  first  French  minister  to  the  United 
States.  Being  a  moderate  liberal,  he  was  now  (1815) 
minister  of  justice.  His  very  amiable  daughter,  the 
wife  of  the  Due  de  Plaisance  (Lebrun,  third  consul  in 
1799),  who  presided  at  his  hospitable  board,  was  half 
American — her  deceased  mother  having  been  a  Phila- 
delphian.  M.  Marbois  gave  to  Major-General  Scott 
many  anecdotes  of  the  Congressional  Government  of 
the  United  States,  some  of  which  may  appear  in  this 
narrative — the  greater  number  having  been  published 
by  Sevelinge  from  the  portfolio  of  M.  Girard,  the  min 
ister.  M.  Marbois  had  some  time  before  published  his 


162     Burning  of  Washington — English  Celebration. 

Conspiration  (^Arnold,  a  copy  of  which  he  presented 
to  the  American. 

An  event  of  poignant  interest  to  Americans  oc 
curred  in  September.  The  British  troops  were  all 
quartered  in  and  about  Paris.  Some  of  the  regiments 
that  assisted,  under  that  freebooter,*  Admiral  Cock- 
burn,  and  the  gentlemanly,  but  pliant  General  Ross, 
in  burning  the  civil  edifices  at  Washington — the  Capi- 

*  This  is  a  harsh  term  to  apply  to  an  officer  of  high  rank ;  but  Cock- 
bum  made  war  a  trade  of  profit  as  well  as  of  vengeance,  in  the  true  bar 
barian  spirit  of  Lord  Bathurst's  letter  to  Prevost,  given  above.  The  late 
J.  S.  Skinner,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  chanced  to  be  at  Ross's  headquarters, 
under  a  flag  of  truce,  when  a  sailor  reported  that  he  had  discovered  some 
hogsheads  of  tobacco  in  the  barn  of  a  farmer.  The  indignant  general  re 
plied  :  "  Begone !  I'm  no  freebooter  like  Cockburn ! ! "  This  admiral 
had  been  living  ashore  at  free  quarters  for  some  time,  in  General  Greene's 
last  residence,  Dungenness,  Cumberland  Island,  Georgia,  when  the  pub 
lished  treaty  of  peace  was  received,  early  in  March,  1815.  Cockburn 
prepared  to  return  to  his  flagship.  Mrs.  Shaw,  the  widowed  daughter  of 
the  great  general,  said  to  Cockburn :  "  Your  servants  are  packing  up  all 
my  plate — silver  urns,  pitchers,  cups,  spoons,  forks,  etc.,  etc."  "  The 
servants,"  he  replied,  "  have  mistaken  their  orders.  My  steward  shall 
correct  the  error."  In  a  short  time  she  flew  to  him  again,  to  say: 
"  There  goes,  in  the  boxes  leaving  the  door,  every  piece  of  my  plate — 
presentations  to  my  father,  and  all ! "  "  Madam,  on  board,  your  property 
shall  be  carefully  separated  from  mine  and  sent  back."  Nevertheless,  the 
whole  was  carried  off,  together  with  some  of  her  colored  servants,  who,  no 
doubt,  were  sold  in  some  of  the  British  West  India  Islands !  This  story 
the  autobiographer  had  from  Mrs.  Shaw  herself,  at  Dungenness,  in  1826. 


Celebration  of  English  Vandalism.  163 

tol,  the  President's  mansion,  and  other  executive  build 
ings — hit  upon  the  pleasant  conceit — being  in  the  occu 
pancy  of  the  capital  of  Europe,  to  celebrate,  in  it,  the 
anniversary  of  their  vandalism  in  the  capital  of  Amer 
ica.  Accordingly,  full  of  their  "  laudable  ignominy," 
the  officers  of  those  regiments  founded  a  grand  enter 
tainment,  to  which  were  invited  "many  principal  officers 
of  the  same  army,  including  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
together  with  a  thick  sprinkling  of  French  hungry  cour 
tiers,  recently  back  from  a  long  emigration,  and  all,  of 
course,  idolizers  of  British  troops. 

It  is  not  now  distinctly  recollected  whether  the 
great  duke  was  present  or  not.  The  documents  are 
not  at  hand.  He  certainly  did  not  interdict  the  cele 
bration,  nor  warn  his  officers  not  to  make  a  vaunt  of 
their  shame  in  respect  to  the  burnings. 

The  founders  and  their  guests,  had  it  all  in  their 
own  way.  Forgetting  that  Washington  had  no  defend 
ers  when  Cockburn  and  Ross  approached,  except  mobs 
of  militia,  hastily  collected, — but  half  of  whom  had  had 
time  to  obtain  arms,  or  to  learn  the  names  of  their 
officers ; — forgetting,  too,  how  British  troops  had  been, 
the  year  before,  repeatedly  beaten  and  dispersed  in 
Canada,  and  (still  later)  repulsed  and  disgraced  .at 


164:  Retaliation. 

"New  Orleans — poor  Americans !  how  shockingly  were 
they  maltreated  by  those  Washington  heroes,  and  their 
friends !  Such  victories,  however,  aside  from  "  the 
iron  harvest  of  the  field,"  are,  but  a  cheap  indulgence. 

Fired  with  indignation,  the  Americans  at  hand  re 
solved  on  a  retaliation.  It  was  the  general  wish  to 
select  the  anniversary  of  some  conflict  in  which  Scott 
had  been  a  principal.  To  this  he  objected,  begging  a 
postponement  to  the  New  Orleans  victory — the  8th  of 
January.  As  the  time  approached,  grand  preparations 
were  made.  The  Hotel  Eobert,  Eue  Grange  Battel- 
liere,  where  the  sovereigns  habitually  hobnobbed  before 
they  dispersed  homeward,  was  selected  as  the  place  of 
meeting.  A  sumptuous  dinner  for  seventy  Americans 
besides  their  guests,  to  be  served  on  silver  and  by  wait 
ers  in  livery,  was  ordered.  The  ostentation  was  in 
tended  to  give  increased  publicity  to  the  occasion,  and 
for  the  same  purpose,  the  Americans  everywhere, 
dropped  the  expectation  —  many,  the  hope,  of  being 
jostled ;  for  that  Hotel  continued  to  be  the  resort  of 
the  higher  English,  and  "the  bucks  and  bloods"  of 
the  English  army. 

The  morning  of  the  dinner,  Count  "Woronzow — 
lieutenant-general  and  aide-de-camp  to  the  Emperor 


American,  Dinner,  January  8.  165 

Alexander ;  also  then  commander  of  the  forty  thousand 
Russians,  part  of  the  foreign  army  of  occupation  (one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand)  under  the  Duke  of  Wel 
lington — chanced  to  make  one  of  his  agreeable  calls 
upon  Scott.  Through  an  accidental  opening  of  the 
bedroom  door,  he  caught  a  view  of  the  American's 
uniform,  and  being  young,  playful,  and  tall,  he  seized 
upon  the  coat,  put  it  on,  and  with  the  companion-sword 
in  hand,  charged  about  the  apartment,  and  slew  British 
troops  in  much  finer  style  than  the  weapon  had  ever 
known  before.  The  acting  was  perfect. 

The  ventilation  of  the  uniform  led  to  the  story  of 
the  provocative  and  retaliatory  dinners,  and  to  the  re 
mark  that  a  possible  conflict  might  ensue;  for  Lord 
Hill's  quarters,  with  a  battalion  of  troops,  were  nearly 
opposite  to  the  Hotel  Robert.  The  Russian  impulsive 
ly  offered  to  send  a  battalion  of  the  emperor's  guards 
to  protect  the  meeting.  On  a  little  reflection  Scott 
declined  the  distinguished  honor,  as  it  would  almost 
certainly  have  caused  a  coolness,  if  not  something  more 
grave,  between  the  count  and  his  commander,  the  Duke 
of  Wellington.* 

*  It  was  at  the  same  visit  that  his  Russian  friend  gave  to  Scott  this 
anecdote :— "After  exiling  Napoleon  to  Elba,  in  1814,  the  allied  sovereigns 


166  Alexander's  Contempt •,  etc. 

The  Americans,  in  a  respectable  column  entered 
the  hotel,  and  mounted  the  grand  staircase.  Scott, 
Colonels  Drayton,  McRae,  Thayer,  Archer,  etc.,  etc., 
in  uniform,  with  swords  by  their  sides,  and  some  others 
with  pistols  in  pocket.  The  crowd  was  as  great  as 
usual  in  the  evening ;  but  not  a  jostle,  interruption,  or 
insult  was  experienced.  Scott  presided,  assisted  by  the 
principal  officers  named,  and  Mr.  Jackson,  late  United 
States'  Charge  d' Affaires,  but  not  accredited  to  Louis 
XYIII  at  this  time.  A  band  of  music  gave  the  na 
tional  airs  of  America  and  France.  The  cloth  being 
removed,  the  toasts  followed  in  quick  succession: — 
Our  Country;  the  President  of  the  United  States; 
Memory  of  Washington ;  La  Fayette  (then  sick  in  bed), 
and  nine  others.  The  Fifth  was : — MAJOR-GENERAL 
JACKSON  and  Ms  heroic  army,  who,  this  day  a  year  ago, 

went  over  to  England  to  make  the  regent  (subsequently  George  IY.),  a 
visit.  The  latter  had  prepared  a  naval  combat,  on  the  Serpentine  River, 
between  a  British  and  an  American  frigate  (diminutives)  for  his  imperial 
and  royal  guests — Brother  Jonathan,  in  a  "  fir  frigate,  with  a  bit  of  bunt 
ing  for  a  flag,"  stood  the  distant  fire  pretty  well ;  but  when  John  Bull  laid 
his  ship  alongside,  poor  Jonathan  struck  his  bunting  and  ran  below !  The 
regent,  etc.,  were  charmed  with  the  victory,  when  the  Emperor  Alexander 
whispered  into  the  ear  of  his  aid,  Woronzow :  '  This  is  contemptible — 
when  an  American  sloop-of-war,  on  the  coast  of  Ireland,  and  an  American 
privateer  in  the  channel,  are  sinking  or  destroying  scores  of  British  vessels.' " 


American  Toasts — Censorship.  167 

near  New  Orleans,  defeated  thrice  their  numbers  of  the 

• 
best  British  troops,  commanded  by  Sir  Edward  Pdken- 

ham,  the  "brother-in-law  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  ! 

This  toast,  introduced  with  some  sharp  remarks,  by 
Scott,  on  the  provocation  that  had  led  to  the  dinner, 
was  drunk  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm,  and  the  com 
pany  dispersed  at  a  reasonable  hour,  in  perfect  order 
and  quietness. 

A  report,  in  French,  of  the  meeting  and  toasts, 
specially  stating  the  provocation,  was  drawn  Ap  and 
sent  by  a  committee  to  the  Constitutional  (a  liberal 
paper)  for  insertion.  M.  Le  Censeur  of  the  press,  a 
crabbed  old.  emigre,  running  his  spectacled  eyes  down 
the  page  came  upon  the  great  disparity  of  the  "belliger 
ent  forces,  at  JSTew  Orleans,  and  the  statement  that  the 
defeated  commander  was  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  when  he  gutted  the  toast  of  the  "  peril 
ous  stuff"  that  could  not  fail  to  give  offence  to  the 
English.  The  toast  in  compliment  to  La  Fayette  was 
by  this  official,  entirely  expunged — frankly  saying  the 
French  Press  was  not  open  to  the  praise  of  that  patriot 
hero.  In  revenge,  Scott,  at  the  cost  of  a  few  guineas, 
caused  the  unexpurgated  report  to  be  published  in  a 
London  paper. 


OHAPTEE  XIY. 

ENGLAND LONDON BATH. 

SCON  after  the  dinner,  Scott  recrossed  the  channel. 
The  second  Adams  was  then  the  honored  American 
minister  in  London,  who  showed  every  attention  to  his 
soldier  countrymen,  and  of  whom  more  will  be  said  in 
the  sequel. 

Under  the  self-imposed  restrictions,  given  above, 
the  autobiographer  has  but  few  more  European  occur 
rences  to  add  to  this  narrative. 

The  English  Parliament  was  in  session.  Among 
other  distinguished  persons,  Scott  dined  several  times 
with  Lord  Holland — high  in  literature,  high  as  a 
political  leader,  and,  like  his  illustrious  uncle,  Charles 


A  Grand  Dinner.  169 

James  Fox,  a  decided  friend  to  "  the  cause  of  freedom 
throughout  the  world." 

Persons  of  like  sentiments  and  liberal  pursuits,  of 
whatever  country,  were  easily  admitted  into  his  family 
circle ;  for  Lady  Holland,  an  American,  had  also  high 
gifts  and  accomplishments.  At  one  of  those  dinners, 
present  several  of  the  higher  nobles,  and  the  more  dis 
tinguished  commoners  —  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and 
Sir  Samuel  Romilly  (both  of  whom  were  very  kind  to 
Scott  on  many  occasions),  an  incident  occurred,  too 
characteristic  of  English  feeling  toward  America,  at 
the  time,  to  be  omitted. 

This  particular  dinner  was  given  in  special  com 
pliment  to  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  who  had  a  near 
relative  at  table,  unknown  to  Scott,  the  captain  that 
received  Napoleon  on  board  the  Bellerophon.  The 
naval  officer,  loud  and  rude  as  Boreas  at  sea;  but 
coming  up  to  London,  as  a  "blood,"  fell  under  the 
fashionable  code  of  Bond  Street,  and  had  to  lisp  and 
mince  words,  to  stammer  between  syllables,  and  even 
letters  in  the  same  word,  like  the  rest  of  the  coxcombs 
of  the  day.  When  the  ladies  had  retired,  this  fop  in 
quired  of  Scott,  whether  "  the  Americans  continued  to 

build  line-of-battle  ships,  and  to  call  them  frigates  ? " 
8 


1YO  Nttval  Anecdote — Bath. 

Anywhere  else  the  offensive  question  would  have  been 
very  differently  answered.  The  American  bit  his  lips 
and  replied :  "  "We  have  borrowed  a  great  many  ex 
cellent  things  from  the  mother  country,  and  some  that 
discredit  both  parties — among  the  latter  is  the  practice 
in  question.  Thus  when  you  took,  from  France,  the 
Guerriere,  she  mounted  forty-nine  guns,  and  you  in 
stantly  rated  her  on  your  list  a  thirty-six  gun  frigate ; 
but  when  we  captured  her  from  you,  we  found  on 
board  the  same  number,  forty-nine  guns ! "  "  General 
Scott,"  said  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  "  I  am  delighted 
with  your  reply  to  my  kinsman.  Please  take  a  glass 
of  wine  with  me." 

A  short  visit  to  Bath  was  not  without  interest. 
Among  his  letters  of  introduction,  Scott  had  one  to 
John  Parish,  Esq.,  of  that  city,  whose  son  David,  a 
resident  of  Philadelphia,  had  been  the  agent  of  certain 
Dutch  and  Hanseatic  bankers,  in  loans  to  the  United 
States,  to  an  amount  of  half  the  expenditure  of  the 
recent  war  with  Great  Britain.  The  father,  an  octoge 
narian,  had,  in  fifty  years,  as  a  merchant  at  Hamburg, 
made  an  ample  fortune,  and  now  lived  in  a  superior 
style  among  the  throng  of  dowager  ladies,  half-pay 
generals,  and  admirals  who  constituted  the  resident 


Meeting  with  a  Tory  American  Lady.         171 

population  of  that  remarkable  city.  He  had  contrived 
to  send  to  America,  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
many  cargoes  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  clothing,  and 
subsequently  became  consul  of  the  United  States.  His 
obsolete  commission  as  such,  in  frame,  signed  by 
President  Washington,  hung  conspicuously  in  one  of 
his  apartments.  General  Bonaparte,  about  to  sign  the 
preliminary  treaty  of  Campo  Formio,  chanced  to  re 
member  La  Fayette,  then  three  years  in  an  Austrian 
dungeon  (Olmutz),  and  withheld  the  pen  until  a  formal 
order  was  given,  by  the  Emperor  Francis,  for  the  lib 
eration  of  the  Franco- American  patriot.  He  was  per 
sonally  delivered  to  Mr.  Parish,  American  Consul. 

Another  introductory  letter  from  a  belle  of  Phila 
delphia,  to  her  great  aunt,  Lady  J.,  wife  of  Sir  Henry 
Johnson,  Baronet,  residing  at  Bath,  and  a  senior  gen 
eral  of  the  British  army,  led  to  an  interview  which,  at 
this  distant  day,  cannot  be  recalled  without  emotion. 
This  lady,  in  1779,  and  some  years  before,  was,  as  Miss 
Franks,  the  belle  of  Philadelphia — handsome,  witty, 
and  an  heiress.  She  was  also  high  in  toryism  and 
eccentricity.  Many  amusing  sarcasms  of  hers,  levelled 
at  revolutionary  men  of  eminence,  were  in  circulation 
in  Philadelphia  down  to  the  autobiographer's  early 


172          The  Lady  and  General  Charles  Lee. 

days.  One  of  them,  of  a  practical  nature,  was  too 
offensive  to  be  amusing.  Mrs.  General  Washington 
gave  a  ball  to  the  French  minister,  M.  Girard,  in  honor 
of  the  recent  alliance  between  Louis  XVI.  and  the 
United  States,  which  had  led  the  Americans  to  unite 
the  cockades  of  the  two  countries — white  and  black. 
Miss  Franks  caused  this  token  of  alliance  to  be  tied  to 
the  neck  of  a  dog,  and  by  a  bribe  to  a  servant,  got  the 
animal,  thus  decorated,  turned  into  the  ball  room. 

The  equally  eccentric,  Major-General  Charles  Lee, 
wore,  in  the  saddle,  long  pantaloons  lined  from  the 
crotch  to  the  ankle  with  buckskin  to  prevent  abrasion 
— after  that  example,  much  worn  in  America  by  mili 
tary  men  down  to  within  forty-five  years.  Miss  Franks 
charged  that  they  were  "  green  breeches,  patched  with 
leather."  In  his  celebrated  reply  *  to  her,  filled  with 
coarse  wit  and  humor,  he  denies  the  patching,  and  adds 
that  his  pantaloons  are  "  legitimate  sherry  vallies,  such 
as  his  majesty  of  Poland  wears " — on  whose  personal 
staff  he  had  recently  served. 

This  brilliant  young  lady  married,  about  this  time, 
Major  Johnson,  a  British  officer,  made  prisoner  at  the 

*  See  his  Life  and  Memoirs,  New  York,  1813,  and  Memoirs  of  the  Life, 
etc.,  London,  1792.     Both  anonymous. 


Sequel  of  the  Meeting.  173 

capture  of  Stony  Point  (of  which  he  was  the  command 
er)  and  sent  to  Philadelphia.  In  1816  she  had  become, 
from  bad  health,  prematurely  old — a  very  near  ap 
proach  to  a  ghost,  but  with  eyes  still  bright,  and  other 
remains  of  her  former  self. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  letter  of  introduction,  Lady 
J.  despatched  her  amiable  husband — a  fine  old  soldier, 
to  fetch  the  stranger.  Scott,  as  has  been  seen,  was 
fortunately  a  little  acquainted  with  her  eccentric  man 
ner.  She  had  been  rolled  out  in  an  easy  chair  to  receive 
him.  On  presentation,  he  was  transfixed  by  her  eager, 
but  kindly  gaze.  "  Is  this  the  young  rebel  1 "  were  her 
first  words.  "  My  dear,  it  is  your  countryman !  "  etc., 
said  Sir  Henry,  fearing  that  Scott  might  take  offence. 
"  Yes,  it  is,"  she  quickly  added,  "  the  young  rebel ; 
and  you  have  taken  the  liberty  to  beat  his  majesty's 
troops."  Scott,  by  a  pleasant  word  or  two,  parried  the 
impeachment  as  well  as  he  could ;  but  the  lady  followed 
up  the  accusation,  with  specific  references,  which  sur 
prised  not  a  little.  Scott  soon  found  himself  seated  by 
her  side,  with  a  hand  clasped  in  both  of  hers — cold  and 
clammy,  as  in  the  article  of  death.  Taking  a  sudden 
turn,  she  exclaimed,  with  emphasis  :  "  I  have*gloried 
in  my  rebel  countrymen ! "  Then  pointing  to  heaven, 


174:  Sequel,  etc. 

with  both  hands,  she  added,  in  a  most  affecting  tone : 
"  Would  to  God  I,  too,  had  been  a  patriot."  A  gentle 
remonstrance  was  interposed  by  the  husband,  who  had 
been  carried  away  by  sympathy  up  to  this  moment. 
Turning  now  upon  him,  she  said,  with  the  earnestness 
of  -truth :  "  I  do  not,  I  have  never  regretted  my  mar 
riage.  No  woman  was  ever  blessed  with  a  kinder,  a 
better  husband;  but  I  ought  to  have  been  a  patriot 
before  marriage."  Hers  were  the  only  dry  eyes  of  the 
party. 


CHAPTEE    XV. 

REFLECTIONS    ON    PEACE   AND   WAR THE   CANKER  ABOLI 
TIONISM STATE   RIGHTS NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

As  has  been  said,  the  autobiographer  returned  home 
in  1816,  when  he  resumed  his  duties  in  the  army. 
Thence  to  the  Mexican  War,  in  1846,  there  is  a  gap 
of  thirty  years  to  be  bridged  over  in  this  narrative. 
In  this  long  interval  he  was  not  idle,  and  a  few  of  its 
scenes  and  events  with  which  he  was  connected  will  be 
sketched  in  this  narrative. 

Always  preferring  peace  to  unnecessary,  and  of 
course  to  unjust  wars,  he  never  made  his  own  the  dis 
tracted  cry  of  poor  Constance,  in  King  John  : 
"  War !  war !  no  peace !  peace  is  to  me  a  war ! " 


176  Peace  and  War. 

Yet,  perhaps,  the  thesis  might  plausibly  be  main 
tained  that  war  is  the  normal  or  natural  state  of  man. 
Homo  komini  lupus.* 

Amid  the  woods  the  tiger  knows  his  kind, 
The  panther  preys  not  on  the  panther  brood, 

Man  only  is  the  common  foe  to  man.f 

• 

Milton  sings : 

Peace  hath  her  victories 

No  less  renown'd  than  war. 

This  fine  couplet,  addressed  to  the  great  warrior 
and  statesman — the  Lord  General,  Cromwell — often 
quoted  by  civilians  as  a  taunt  to  soldiers,  will  not,  in 
that  sense,  bear  a  philosophic  analysis ;  for  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  peace,  that  might  not  have  been 
as  well  done  in  a  state  of  war  ?  Sunday  schools,  Bible 
societies,  missions  to  the  heathen,  vaccination,  the  steam 
engine,  the  electric  telegraph,  etc.,  are  the  great  human 
triumphs  of  recent  times.  Several  of  these  blessings 
had,  as  is  known,  their  beginning  and  maturity  in  time 
of  war ;  and  what  a  flood  of  Christian  light  followed, 
and  is  likely  to  follow,  the  recent  march  of  European 
armies  into  the  interior  of  China?  And  Shakspeare, 

*  Erasmus.  f  Motto  to  Caleb  Williams. 


Origin  of  Political  Abolitionism.  177 

the  deepest  of  human  observers,  recognizes  "  the  can 
kers  of  a  calm  world  and  long  peace."  Perhaps,  an 
occasional  interlude  of  foreign  war  may  be  even  neces 
sary  to  the  moral  health  of  a  people  rapidly  increasing 
in  population,  wealth,  and  luxurious  indulgences. 

In  this  interval  of  peace,  certain  speculative,  moody 
minds  at  the  "  North,  Northeast,  and  by  East,"  *  like 
Loyola,  brooding  over  their  want  of  occupation  or  use 
fulness — and  being  as  tired  of  prosperity  as  Athenian 
demagogues  were  with  the  name  of  Aristides  the  just  / 
— these  dreamers,  struck  out  the  idea  of  abolishing,  at 
"  one  fell  swoop,"  negro  slavery  in  the  other  half  of  the 
Union.  By  a  singular  aptitude  this  idea  coalesced  at 
once  with  religious  fanaticism,  when  a  "  charm  of  pow 
erful  trouble  "  became  "  firm  and  good."  The  ambitious 
leaders  of  a  political  party  eagerly  made  court  to  this 
great  and  growing  element  of  strength ;  succeeded  in 
the  wooing,  and  were  placed  at  its  head. 

Now  it  is  the  nature  of  a  new  hallucination  to  shut 
out  from  the  mind  facts  and  principles  —  everything 
that  conflicts  with  the  one  ruling  idea.  Hence  the  work 
of  agitation  now  went  bravely  on.  The  fact  was 
entirely  ignored  that  slavery,  in  several  States,  was 

*  Shakspeare. 
8* 


178  Recklessness  of  Abolitionism. 

happily  undergoing  a  gradual  but  sure  amelioration, 
and  could  not  fail  to  be  more  and  more  spontaneously 
accelerated,  without  the  danger  of  reaction,  if  it  were 
left  to  God's  own  time  to  educe  good  from  evil, 
in  his  own  way.  So  were  forgotten  that  His  great 
work  —  even  the  creation  of  the  world — was  one  of 
time  and  deliberation,  instead  of  a  simple  fiat,  which, 
if  He  had  pleased,  would  have  been  all  sufficient ; — 
that  more  years  were  allowed  to  intervene  between 
the  promise  made  to  Abraham  and  the  advent  of  our 
Saviour,  than  Africans  had  been  in  America  —  the 
chosen  people  of  God  being,  meanwhile,  slaves  in 
Egypt  and  Babylon ; — that  the  monarch  oak  and  lofty 
pine — fit  "  to  be  the  mast  of  some  great  ammiral " — 
require  centuries  to  mature  them ; — forgetting,  too,  that, 
as  has  just  been  shown,  hundreds  of  years,  more  or  less, 
are  in  divine  estimation,  but  as  a  moment  in  the  life 
of  a  people  or  race  of  men ; — forgetting  all  those  high 
considerations,  the  reckless  reformers  rus,  ed  in  "  where 
angels  "  might  "  fear  to  tread,"  at  the  imminent  peril 
of  setting  owners  and  slaves  to  the  mutual  slaughter 
of  men,  women,  and  children  of  the  opposite  color. 
That  this  would  have  happened,  since  the  rebellion,  no 
white  woman,  in  putting  her  children  to  bed  would 


Folly  of  the  South.  179 

have  doubted,  but  for  the  wide  spread  of  troops,  Union 
and  Confederate,  pver  the  South ;  and,  indeed,  a  like 
danger  and  a  like  nervous  apprehension  existed — not 
without  cause,  in  Southern  families — created  by  exter 
nal,  pragmatic  missions  and  missiles — beginning  some 
twenty-odd  years  before. 

The  first  great  error  of  the  South,  after  the  agita 
tion  began,  was,  in  causing  abolition  petitions  to  be 
laid  upon  the  table  in  Congress,  instead  of  referring 
them  to  committees  for  due  consideration  and  respect 
ful  reports  on  the  same.  The  alleged  ground  of  this 
treatment  was,  that  the  petitioners  asked  for  what  Con 
gress  had  no  power,  under  the  Constitution,  to  grant. 
Agreed;  but  why  not  have  allowed  a  committee  (or 
committees)  to  find  that  fact  and  solemnly  report  that 
finding  ?  Such  report — say  from  Mr.  Adams,  who  was 
prepared  so  to  report — would  have  taken  from  aboli 
tionists  more  than  half  of  the  fuel  needed  to  keep  up 
their  excitement  to  fever  heat;  for  the  abstract  right 
of  petition  had,  by  the  events  immediately  preceding 
the  revolution,  become  hallowed,  more  particularly  in 
the  public  mind  of  the  New  England  States.  Thus 
action  and  reaction,  error  and  outrage  went  on,  each 
producing  its  like — Caliban,  his  Caliban — as  certainly 


180     Desolation  of  the  South — Evils  ^n  the  North. 

as  if  the  propagation  had  been  commanded  in  the 
book  of  Genesis.  And,  unhappily,  the  parties  seem 
still  (January,  1864),  as  desperately  bent  as  ever,  on 
playing  out  the  game — All  for  HATE,  or  the  World 
well  Lost*  Hence  "  all  our  woe." 

Now  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  if  it  had  pleased 
God,  but  a  few  years  before,  to  have  taken  away  only 
some  ten  or  fifteen  of  those  zealots  from  one  half  of  the 
Union,  and  as  many  of  the  hot-brained  Southerners — 
mainly  intent  on  president-making  and  the  increase 
of  slave  property — the  South  would  not  already  be  a 
scene  of  general  desolation — one  "  house  of  mourning ; " 
— nor  the  North  filled  with  widows,  orphans,  cripples, 
and  another  evil  of  large  dimensions — swarms  of  rich 
contractors  —  many  of  them  fraudulent  —  whose  low 
manners,  high  pretensions,  pomp  and  extravagance, 
excite  the  contempt  of  the  philosophic,  the  pity  of  the 
good  and  envy  of  legions  of  weak-minded  men  and 
women. 

But  this  inductive  history  of  present  calamities 
would  be  incomplete — nay,  unjust,  without  a  further 
glance  at  men  and  measures  hostile  to  the  Union — of 

*  "  All  for  Love,  or  the  World  well  Lost"— the  title  of  Dryden's 
Antony  and  Cleopatra. 


Johnson's  Homage  to  Martial  Prowess.        181 

an  earlier  period.  The  stream  of  bitter  waters,  here 
alluded  to,  had  its  source  in  the  connection  of  Presi 
dent  Washington  and  his  first  Secretary  of  State,  Mr. 
Jefferson. 

Dr.  Johnson  has  supposed  Socrates  and  Charles 
XII.  of  Sweden,  to  address  an  assembly  of  some  pride 
of  character.  The  great  founder  of  moral  science,  with 
persuasive  eloquence,  commends  the  beauty  of  virtue. 
The  heroic  Swede,  in  his  turn,  draws  his  sword  and 
flashing  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude,  calls  out — Fol 
low  me  and  let's  dethrone  the  Czar!  Johnson  doubts 
whether  many  listeners  would  remain  with  Socrates. 

The  same  moralist  puts  another  case  to  illustrate 
the  same  feeling,  w,hich  he  holds  to  be  quite  common 
in  the  breasts  of  men.  Lord  Mansfield  is  brought  into 
a  circle  with  a  Blake  or  a  Marlborough,  and  is  made 
to  feel,  in  such  presence,  that  his  learned  decrees  on 
the  bench,  and  terse  eloquence  in  the  Senate,  are  of 
but  little  worth. 

There  is,  no  doubt,  much  exaggeration,  but  a  basis 
of  nature,  in  those  illustrations.  Hence,  as  revolution 
ary  worthies  assured  the  autobiographer  fifty  and 
sixty  years  ago,  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence — highly  ambitious;  a 


1 82         Jefferson's  Opposition  to  Washington. 

man  of  genius,  of  literary  culture,  and  with  a  fine  turn 
for  philosophic  inquiries — always  felt  himself  uneasy — 
nay,  rebuked — in  the  presence  of  Washington — not  so 
much  at  his  calm  dignity,  wise  statesmenship,  and 
moral  weight  of  character;  as  at  the  recollection  of 
his  being  the  great  general  and  hero  in  the  war  that 
achieved  independence.  To  recover  himself  from  the 
painful  sense  of  inferiority,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  forced  to 
set  up  an  opposition,  and  leave  the  cabinet,  when  his 
party  pretended  to  find  that  man  is  too  much  governed ; 
that  property,  and  liberty,  with  law  and  order,  had 
nothing  to  fear  from  popular  judges  and  universal 
suffrage;  that  Washington  had  imparted  too  much 
centripetal  force  to  the  Union — to  meet  which  they 
opposed  the  centrifugal  tendency,  or  the  doctrine  of 
State  Rights — the  first  fruits  of  which  have  been  seen 
in  nullification — almost  identical  with  rebellion  ;*  both 
in  part,  the  posthumous  works  of  Mr.  Jefferson. 

Mr.  Calhoun,  of  pure  morals  and  high  intellect — 
only  a  little  too  much  imbued  with  metaphysics — fol 
lowed  in  the  same  career,  not  from  the  beginning  of 
his  political  life,  but  was  forced  into  it  by  circum 
stances.  No  one  was  more  eminently  conservative* 
*  Mr.  Calhoun's  mind  had  a  strong  tendency  to  extremes.  He  was,  at 


Jackson  Drives  Calhoun  into  State  Rights.     183 

in  politics  till  after  his  election  to  the  vice-presidency, 
when  President  Jackson  (toward  whom  he  always 
stood  in  awe)  learned  that  he  had,  as  Secretary  of 
War,  in  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet,  suggested  the  hero's 
recall — perhaps,  punishment,  by  a  court  martial,  for 
the  conquest  of  Middle  Florida  during  a  state  of  pro 
found  peace  with  Spain.  This  late  discovery  of  a  meri 
torious  act,  brought  down  upon  the  second  functionary 
of  the  Government  the  utmost  wrath  of  the  first. 

There  was  no  recovery  from  this  blight,  but,  as  it 
seemed,  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  an  abrupt  change  of  party. 
Accordingly,  to  recover  himself,  he  took  refuge  in  State 
Rights  ;  stereotyped  the  doctrine  on  the  Southern  mind, 
and  hence  nullification,  and  next  rebellion. 

As  to  the  abstract  right  of  man  to  hold  any  human 
being  in  slavery,  except  in  the  way  of  punishment  for 
established  crime,  the  sentiment  of  the  civilized  world 


first,  in  favor  of  making,  by  the  authority  and  at  the  expense  of  the  United 
States,  Appian  highways  from  the  centre  to  the  frontiers  in  every  direc 
tion  ;  of  a  high  tariff  and  a  bank  of  the  United  States.  To  illustrate  his 
genius  and  early  doctrine,  this  anecdote  may  be  added : — At  a  dinner  of 
six  or  eight,  all  officers  of  the  army,  but  himself,  he  spoke  of  the  party 
contests  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  and  continued :  "  When  the 
Republicans,  headed  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  stormed  and  carried  the  citadel  of 
Government,  in  1801,  they  were  not  such  fools  as  to  spike  the  guns." 


184  Slavery — Emancipation. 

is  fast  waxing  to  unanimity  on  the  negative  side"  of  the 
proposition.  The  recent  abolition  of  serfdom  in  Russia 
was  a  mighty  stride  in  that  direction,  and  it  may  at 
this  time  be  safely  assumed  that  all  the  chairs  of  moral 
philosophy  throughout  Christendom,  except,  perhaps,  a 
very  small  number  in  slaveholding  countries,  deny  all 
claim  of  right  on  the  part  of  masters.  But  as  to  the 
manner  of  mitigating,  to  extinction,  the  evil  of  negro 
slavery, — whether  by  degrees,  more  or  less  slow  or  fast, 
or  at  once,  in  districts  where  it  actually  exists,  in  masses 
— these  are  very  different  questions,  involving  difficul 
ties  within  difficulties. 

There  is  no  intention  of  doing  more,  in  this  place, 
than  to  glance,  very  slightly,  at  some  of  those  points, 
not  developed  in  the  foregoing  pages,  nor  fully  in  the 
autobiographer's  recorded  views  (his  Atkinson  letter) 
on  the  same  subject,  published  in  newspapers  in  1843, 
reproduced  in  Mansfield's  able  work,  and  which  paper 
may  be  repeated  in  these  memoirs.  From  those  sources 
it  will  plainly  appear  that  the  autobiographer's  wishes 
have  been  to  hasten  emancipation  only  as  fast  as  might 
be  found  compatible  with  the  safety  of  both  races. 

The  color  of  the  American  slave  is  the  first  difficul 
ty.  When  a  Roman  placed  the  cap  of  liberty  on  the 


Evils  of  Abrupt  Abolition.  185 

head  of  his  white  slave,  the  latter,  himself,  or  at  least 
his  children,  readily  passed  into  the  general  population 
without  any  brand  of  former  servitude  upon  him.  Not 
so  with  the  negro  freedman.  His  color  will  always  be 
certain  evidence  that  he,  or  his  progenitors,  had  once 
worn  the  yoke  of  the  white  man. 

Immediate  and  wholesale  abolition  of  negro  slavery 
cannot  be  dismissed  without  a  few  additional  remarks. 

In  this  war,  how  many  hundreds  of  thousands  have 
already  been  liberated — men,  women,  and  children — 
and  are  now  fed  and  clothed  by  the  United  States,  be 
sides  the  colored  troops  who  are  also  receiving  pay  as 
such ;  and  how  many  millions  of  the  same  people,  the 
Government  may,  in  all,  take  under  its  wing  by  the 
close  of  the  war — it  would,  it  is  thought,  be  difficult  to 
say  within  a  million.  The  numbers  will  be  numberless. 
How  long  will  these  be  paid,  lodged,  clothed,  and  fed 
in  like  manner  with  those*  first  named  ?  And,  in  the 
end — where  colonized,  and  how  distant  the  colony? 
Transportation  is  a  heavy  item  of  cost.  Is  the  territory 
obtained  or  designated?  The  climate  and  soil  —  are 
they  good  or  bad  ?  How  make  those  work,  who  have, 
for  a  time,  lived  without  labor,  and  who  have  never 
worked  except  when  compelled  by  a  master?  And 


186  Pragmatists  Revolt  the  South. 

last  and  mightiest — how  discharge  the  grand  aggregate 
cost  of  such  operations — including  that  of  the  conquer 
ing  armies  ?  With  all  the  gold  mines  known  to  com 
merce  in  its  possession,  Government  could  not,  'in 
half  a  century,  reduce  that  mountain  of  debt,  that  has 
been  piled  up  in  less  than  three  years. 

Once  more — a  parting  glance,  in  the  way  of  con 
trast,  at  the  system  of  gradual  emancipation,  with  the 
actual  system — immediate  abolitionism. 

In  about  sixty  years,  counting  from  (say)  1833, 
but  for  the  pragmatists  alluded  to — Delaware,  Mary 
land,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri,  would  have  been,  in  all  human  prob 
ability,  free  States,  and  those  farther  South,  by  the 
force  of  example,  must,  in  the  mean  time,  have  en 
tered  on  the  same  career  of  wisdom  and  humanity. 
Virginia  in  1831-'2,  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  came 
within  a  vote  of  carrying  the  system  at  the  first  trial, 
and  wanted  but  a  little  more  time  to  have  brought  over 
to  its  support  an  overwhelming  majority ;  but  just  then, 
as  has  been  noticed  above,  petitions  to  Congress,  and 
missions,  and  missiles  of  violence  to  the  negroes,  agi 
tated  and  revolted  the  whole  South. 

By  the  gradual  system,  of  which  —  honor  to  him 


Mr.  Jefferson — Oxenstiem — Rufus  King.      187 

to  whom  honor  is  due — Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  author 
and  uniform  supporter — each  slave  on  attaining  the 
proper  age — males  (say)  twenty-one — would  have  be 
come  a  free  man  on  the  spot,  where  his  hired  labor 
would  have  been  needed.  Thus  he  would  remain  with 
the  younger  members  of  his  family  till  their  liberation 
in  turn,  or  have  engaged  himself  to  work  on  the  next 
plantation.  In  this  way  each  freedman  would  have 
had,  to  some  extent,  the  choice  of  employers,  and  each 
employer,  to  a  like  extent,  the  choice  of  laborers — each 
with  a  strong  motive  to  respect  the  interests  and  feel 
ings  of  the  other.  Thus,  moreover,  the  labor  of  the 
country  would  not  have  been  diminished,  nor  its  ^pro 
ductions. 

The  wise  Oxenstiern  said  to  his  son:  Nesois  mi 
JUi  quantuld  scientid  gubernatur  mundus.  And  the 
good  old  Grloster,  blind,  says,  in  King  Lear : 

"  'Tis  the  times'  plague  when  madmen  lead  the  blind." 

In  virtue,  wisdom,  talent,  one  of  the  most  eminent 
men  of  his  times — Rufus  King — already  prominent  at 
the  end  of  the  Revolution,  when  quite  young — twice 
our  Minister  Extraordinary  to  London,  and  twenty-odd 
years  a  leader  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States — this 


188  Mr.  King's  Wise  Proposition. 

American  Oxenstiern,  always  opposed  to  the  principle 
of  slavery,  and  to  its  extension  into  new  States  and 
Territories — had  in  him  nothing  of  the  madness  of 
political  abolitionism.  Honored  by  his  kind  attentions 
from  early  in  the  war  of  1812-'15,  to  the  end  of  his 
career,  I,  the  autobiographer,  am  happy  to  cite  his  sen 
timents  on  the  great  subject  under  consideration,  to 
which  my  own  closely  approximated. 

Mr.  King,  feeling  a  modest  assurance  that  his  name, 
position,  and  services  could  not  fail  to  carry  with  them 
due  weight,  with  Congress,  at  some  future  day,  laid 
upon  the  table  of  the  Senate,  February  16,  1825— 
fifteen  days  before  he  finally  left  that  body — a  benign 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  as  soon  as  the  remnant  of 
the  national  debt  should  be  discharged,  the  net  proceeds 
of  the  whole  of  the  public  lands,  "then  and  thence 
forth,  shall  constitute  and  form  a  fund  which  is  hereby 
appropriated,  and  the  faith  of  the  United  States  is 
pledged  that  the  said  fund  shall  be  inviolably  applied 
to  aid  the  emancipation  of  such  sldVes,  within  any  of 
the  United  States,  and  to  aid  the  removal  of  such 
slaves,  and  the  removal  of  such  free  persons  of  color 
in  any  of  the  said  States  as  by  the  laws  of  the  States 
respectively,  may  be  allowed  to  be  emancipated  or  re- 


His  Magnanimity — A  Kindred  Act.          189 

moved  to  any  Territory  or  country  without  the  limits 
of  the  United  States  of  America."  The  resolution 
stands  a  national  record. 

Here  is  statesmanship — far-sightedness,  seeking  to 
disarm  the  muttering  clouds  which  threatened  to  burst 
upon  and  overwhelm  the  land.  Here  is  magnanimity, 
considering  the  hostility  of  the  South  on  account  of 
Mr.  King's  powerful  resistance  to  the  admission  of 
Missouri  into  the  Union  with  slavery.  Here  is  a 
Christian's  revenge — returning  good  for  evil!  All 
honor  to  a  great  deed  and  a  great  name ! 

Hearing  of  the  noble  act,  I,  a  Southern  man,  wait 
ed  upon  Mr.  King  the  same  evening  to  return  him  my 
hearty  thanks,  and  added  that  the  time  could  not  fail 
to  come  when  the  whole  South  would  be  equally  grate 
ful.  The  rebellion  ended,  the  first  tranquil  moment 
will  be  that  time. 

I  place  in  juxtaposition  with  the  foregoing,  a  kin 
dred  sentiment  that  gleamed  in  the  same  body  on  a 
more  recent  occasion. 

It  had  been  proposed,  without  due  reflection,  by  one 
of  our  gallant  commanders  engaged  in  the  suppression 
of  the  existing  rebellion,  to  place,  on  the  banners  of 
his  victorious  troops,  the  names  of  their  battles.  The 


190  Mr.  Sumner's  Noble  Proposition. 

proposition  was  rebuked  by  the  subjoined  resolution, 
submitted  by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Sumner  to  the  Senate,  May 
8,  1862 : 

"  Resolved,  That,  in  the  efforts  now  making  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Union,  and  the  establishment  of 
peace  throughout  the  country,  it  is  inexpedient  that 
the  names  of  the  victories  obtained  over  our  own  fellow 
citizens  should  be  placed  on  the  regimental  colors  of 
the  United  States." 

This  was  noble  and  from  the  right  quarter. 


CHAPTEE    XYI. 

MARRIAGE RECEPTION    OF    SWORDS   AND   MEDAL. 

SOON  after  his  return  from  Europe,  the  autobiogra- 
pher  married  Miss  Maria  Mayo,  the  daughter  of  an  emi 
nent  citizen,  John  Mayo,  Esq.,  of  Richmond,  Virginia — 
a  young  lady  more  admired  in  her  circle  than  her  soldier 
husband,  who,  however,  was  highly  feasted  and  honored 
everywhere — in  Richmond  by  the  whole  State — that  is, 
by  the  governor,  legislators,  judges,  and  many  other 
of  her  first  citizens  united.  She  died,  June  10,  1862. 
Of  this  marriage  three  daughters  remain,  of  seven  chil 
dren — two  sons  and  two  daughters  having  died  quite 
young. 

The  medal  voted  by  Congress  was  presented  in  a 


192  Presentation  and  Reply. 

handsome  address, 'by  President  Monroe,  a  few  days 
before  his  descent  from  power.  The  following  short 
extracts  from  the  recipient's  reply  may  show  his  man 
ner  of  feeling  and  expressing  himself  at  that  period : 

"  "With  a  deep  sense  of  the  additional  obligation  now 
contracted,  I  accept,  at  the  hands  of  the  venerable  chief 
magistrate  of  the  Union,  this  classic  token  of  the  high 
est  reward  that  a  freeman  can  receive — THE  RECORDED 

APPROBATION  OF  HIS  COUNTRY. 

"  And  you,  sir,  whom  I  have  the  honor  officially  to 
address  for  the  last  time ;  you  who  bled  in  the  first,  and 
powerfully  contributed  to  the  second  "War  of  Indepen 
dence  ;  you  who  have  toiled  fifty  years  to  rear  and  to 
establish  the  liberties  of  this  great  republic — permit  an 
humble  actor  in  a  much  shorter  period  of  its  history,  to 
mingle  his  prayers  with  those  of  millions,  for  the  happy 
but  distant  termination  of  a  life,  of  which,  as  yet,  others 
have  enjoyed  the  distinguished  benefits,  whilst  the  cares 
have  been  all  your  own." 

This  medal  chanced  to  be  temporarily  in  the  City 
Bank  of  New  York>  for  safe-keeping,  when  two  thieves, 
in  a  night's  work,  took  from  that  institution  $260,000. 
The  medal  was  lying  in  a  trunk  of  gold.  All  the  coin 
was  stolen,  but  the  medal,  though  taken  out  of  its  case 


Respect  of  Thieves  for  a  Veteran.  193 

(marked  with  the  owner's  name)  to  gratify  curiosity, 
was  left.  A  few  years  later,  when  the  robbers  had 
served  out  their  sentences  in  the  State  prison,  or  been 
pardoned  by  the  Executive,  Scott  was,  in  a  steamer, 
on  the  Hudson,  robbed  of  his  purse  by  pickpockets  who 
did  not  know  him.  The  principal  of  the  bank  robbery 
hearing  of  the  loss  ($140)  bestirred  himself  among  the 
fraternity ;  threatened  to  cause  the  whole  body  to  be 
sent  to  the  State  prison  if  the  money  was  not  returned, 
and  added,  "  When  in  the  City  Bank  I  saw  the  medal, 
but  was  not  such  a  villain  as  to  rob  a  gallant  soldier." 
In  a  day  or  two  the  money  was  returned  by  Hays,  the 
high  constable,  with  that  report,  received  from  a  third 
party.  To  show  that  he  did  not  himself  pocket  the 
money,  Hays  was  required  to  produce  Scott's  written 
receipt  for  its  return — which  was  given. 

A  handsome  sword  was,  about  the  same  time, 
though  voted  years  before,  presented  to  Scott  in  a 
complimentary  address  by  the  Governor  (Pleasants, 
bred  a  Quaker)  of  Virginia. 

A  part  of  the  reply,  to  illustrate  the  character  of 
the  autobiographer,  is  here  inserted  : 

"  The  law  which  gave  my  name  to  a  county ;  the 

thanks  voted  by  the  General  Assembly;  and  this  sword 
9 


194:     Virginia  and  New  York — Swords  of  Honor. 

which  I  now  have  the  honor  to  receive  at  your  hands, 
in  the  presence  of  the  executive  council,  are  the  precious 
evidences  of  that  partiality.  Sir — they  are  appreciated 
by  me  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  bestowed,  as  in 
culcating  the  first  lesson  of  a  citizen-soldier,  that,  as 
liberty  is  the  greatest  of  blessings,  so  should  he  ever 
hold  himself  armed  in  her  defence,  and  ready  to  sacri 
fice  his  life  in  her  cause ! " 

A  similar  presentation  was  earlier  made  to  Scott 
by  the  amiable  and  devoted  patriot,  TompMns,  Gover 
nor  of  New  York.  His  address,  very  partially  quoted 
above,  written  con  amore,  is  too  splendid  as  a  compo 
sition,  to  say  nothing  of  its  flattery,  to  be  much  abridged 
in  these  memoirs : 

"  In  adverting,  sir,  to  your  claims  to  distinction,  it 
would  be  sufficient  to  say,  that  on  all  occasions  you 
have  displayed  the  highest  military  accomplishments, 
the  most  ardent  attachment  to  the  rights  and  honor  of 
your  country,  and  the  most  intrepid  exertions  in  their 
support.  A  rapid  and  unprecedented  succession  of 
promotions  at  an  early  age,  has  been  the  well-earned 
fruit  of  your  talents.  The  distinguished  notice  by  your 
Government  is  the  best  encomium  on  your  character, 


Splendid  Address  of  Governor  Tompkins.     195 

and  the  highest  reward  to  which  the  virtuous  and  the 
great  aspire. 

"  But,  sir,  your  military  career  is  replete  with 
splendid  events.  "Without  descending  into  too  much 
minuteness,  I  may  briefly  refer  to  your  exploits  in  the 
most  interesting  portion  of  the  American  continent. 
The  shores  of  Niagara,  from  Erie  to  Ontario,  are  in 
scribed  with  your  name,  and  with  the  names  of  your 
brave  companions.  The  defeat  of  the  enemy  at  Fort 
George  will  not  be  forgotten.  The  memorable  conflict 
on  the  plains  of  Ghippewa,  and  the  appalling  night- 
battle  on  the  Heights  of  Niagara,  are  events  which 
have  added  new  celebrity  to  the  spots  where  they  hap 
pened,  heightening  the  majesty  of  the  stupendous  cata 
ract,  by  combining  with  its  natural,  all  the  force  of  the 
moral  sublime.  The  admirers  of  the  great  in  nature, 
from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  will  forever  visit  the 
theatre  of  your  achievements.  They  will  bear  to  their 
distant  homes  the  idea  of  this  mighty  display  of  nature, 
and  will  associate  with  it  the  deeds  of  you  and  your 
brothers  in  arms.  And  so  long  as  the  beautiful  and 
sublime  shall  be  objects  of  admiration  among  men; 
so  long  as  the  whelming  waters  of  Erie  shall  be  tum 
bled  into  the  awful  depths  of  Niagara,  so  long  shall 


196  Jackson's  Violence  Aroused. 

the  splendid  actions  in  which  you  have  had  so  con 
spicuous  a  share,  endure  in  the  memory  of  man." 

This  paragraph  closed  the  reply  of  Scott  to  the 
Governor  of  New  York  : 

"  On  an  occasion  like  this,  declarations  would  but 
feebly  express  the  volume  of  obligation  contracted. 
Permit  me  to  assure  your  Excellency,  and  through 
you,  the  Legislature  and  people  of  'the  proud  State  of 
New  York,  that  I  am  sensibly  alive  to  the  duties  of  a 
republican  soldier,  armed  by  the  hands  of  his  country 
men  to  support  and  defend  their  national  honor  and 
independence;  and  if  my  personal  services  had  been 
more  worthy  of  the  distinction  bestowed,  I  should  have 
no  wish  left  me,  at  this  moment,  but  that  the  glory, 
and  liberties  of  the  republic  might  be  eternal." 

In  1817  quite  an  angry  correspondence  took  place 
between  Major-General  Jackson  and  Scott,  then  entire 
strangers  to  each  other.  In  Parton's  life  of  the  former, 
and  Mansfield's  of  the  latter — two  works  of  consider 
able  ability — the  particulars  of  this  quarrel  are  given. 
A  passing  notice  of  it  in  this  compressed  autobiography 
must  suffice. 

The  Secretary  of  War,  acting  in  the  name  or  by  the 
authority  of  the  President,  had  sent  an  order,  direct, 


History  of  the  Case.  197 

to  a  topographical  officer,  in  the  Southern  division 
(half  of  the  United  States)  under  the  command  of 
Jackson,  telling  him  to  go  on  some  duty  elsewhere. 
This  slight  irregularity  was  caused  by  the  wish  to  save 
time,  for  the  officer's  post  office  was  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  Jackson's  headquarters.  If  notice  (al 
ways  proper  in  such  cases)  had  been  given  of  the  order 
in  question,  to  Jackson,  the  irregularity  would  have 
been  cured ;  but  this  was  not  done  by  the  acting  secre 
tary,  Mr.  Graham.  The  want  of  courtesy,  on  the  part 
of  the  Executive,  was  met  by  a  grave  offence — a  severe 
rebuke  of  the  Executive,  in  an  order  addressed  to  his 
division  by  the  hero  of  New  Orleans,  in  which  all  his 
officers  were  peremptorily  instructed  not  to  obey  any 
mandate  whatsoever,  from  whomsoever,  that  did  not 
pass  through  his  (Jackson's)  hands.  This  was,  no 
doubt,  the  production  of  one  of  his  numerous  young 
staff  officers — madcaps  —  to  whom  was  usually  aban 
doned,  as  was  well  known  to  the  whole  service,  all 
labors  of  the  pen.  The  penman,  no  doubt,  proud  of 
his  commission,  very  dogmatically,  laid  down  on  the 
subject  a  code  of  military  doctrines,  most  of  them 
juvenile  crudities,  but  well  suited  to  the  violence  of 
the  chief.  The  order  was  ostentatiously  thrown  into 


198  History  Continued. 

many  newspapers  at  once,  soon  to  be  taken  up  by  all, 
and  become  a  subject  of  universal  conversation.  J  ust 
then,  June,  1817,  Scott  chanced  to  meet  Governor 
Clinton,  present  two  or  three  other  gentlemen.  Being 
interrogated,  professionally,  by  his  Excellency,  on  what 
he  termed  the  "  extraordinary  order,"  the  soldier  en 
tered  fully  and  methodically  into  the  subject,  and  neces 
sarily  pointed  out  several  grave  blunders,  with  many 
regrets,  and  added  the  hope  and  belief  that,  in  consid 
eration  of  great  services,  an  admonition — and  not  what 
the  governor  thought — a  court,  would  terminate  the 
matter.  That  high  functionary,  had  about  him,  neces 
sarily,  many  politicians  of  inferior  grades — one  of  them, 
a  sort  of  familiar,  the  editor  of  a  paper  devoted  to  his 
Excellency  as  a  candidate  (a  second  time)  for  the  presi 
dency.  To  this  editor  Scott's  comments  on  the  order 
were  casually  mentioned,  and  this  was  repeated,  by  the 
latter,  in  the  same  way,  to  a  scribbler  in  the  same 
paper — a  former  aide-de-camp  to  a  rival  general.  This 
ingenious  miscreant,  from  vicarious  hostility,  a  love  of 
mischief,  or  some  hope  of  personal  benefit,  addressed 
General  Jackson,  anonymously,  giving  Scott's  com 
ments,  but  suppressing  the  praises  of  Jackson,  and 
enclosing  a  newspaper  slip,  of  his  own  writing  (which 


Bad  Temper — Bullying.  199 

he  attributed  to  Scott),  attacking  Jackson!  The  en 
tanglement  thus  produced  was  slowly  unravelled  in 
the  next  ten  or  twelve  years.  Jackson  enclosed  to 
Scott  a  copy  of  the  anonymous  letter  (refusing  the 
original)  and  the  contemptible  printed  article,  demand 
ing,  etc.  In  reply,  Scott  (also  suppressing  his  praises) 
acknowledged  and  repeated  his  comments  on  the  order, 
but  spurned  the  printed  squib.  Then  came  the  rejoin 
der  full  of  bad  temper,  bad  writing,  and  bad  logic,  but 
containing  no  challenge — only  intimating  that  Scott 
might,  if  he  pleased,  call  him  to  the  field !  Now  this 
was  as  arrogant  as  absurd ;  for  the  law  of  the  duello 
requires  that  the  party,  first  conceiving  himself  to  be 
insulted,  should  make  such  call — otherwise  there  would 
be  a  mere  competition  in  vulgar  abuse,  as  in  the  quar 
rels  of  fishwomen.  Scott,  however,  for  the  sake  of  a 
conceit  that  forced  itself  upon  him,  chose  for  the  mo 
ment  to  consider  the  rejoinder  as  a  challenge,  in  order 
to  add  that  he  declined  the  combat  as  his  "  ambition 
was  not  that  of  Erostratus" — intimating  that  being 
without  distinction,  he  waived  his  only  chance  of 
acquiring  any  by  killing  a  defender  of  his  country. 
Jackson,  probably,  not  understanding  the  compliment, 
hugged  the  pleasanter  conceit  to  his  bosom,  that  he 


200  Fancied  Triumph. 

had  won  another  personal  victory  by  bullying!  It 
seemed  cruel  to  disturb  so  much  happiness,  and  Scott 
left  his  enemy  in  all  his  glory. 

In  the  next  six  years  the  report  often  reached  Scott 
and  down  to  a  late  day,  that  Jackson  had  declared  he 
would  cut  off  Scott's  ears  (his  usual  threat  against 
offenders)  the  first  time  they  should  chance  to  meet. 
They  first  saw  each  other  in  Washington,  December, 
1823.  Jackson  had  just  taken  his  seat  in  the  Senate, 
and  Scott  was  en  route  for  the  Western  Department, 
headquarters,  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  thence  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  etc.,  etc.  During  his  short  stay  in 
Washington,  Scott — having  the  privilege  of  the  floor — 
was  every  day  in  the  Senate  chamber  (when  open) — un 
armed  ; — for  he  never  has  worn  a  concealed  weapon — 
always  declaring  it  would  be  the  smaller  evil  that  he, 
or  any  other  person  should  be  slain,  than  to  set  so  bad 
an  example.  He  frequented  the  Senate  not  to  attack, 
or  to  insult,  but  simply  to  put  himself  under  the  eye 
of  Jackson — contriving  to  pass  out  the  chamber,  on 
adjournment,  just  ahead  of  him. 

Wearied  with  this  state  of  things,  and  impatient  to 
proceed  to  his  duties  in  the  Southwest,  this  letter  was 
written : 


Correspondence  Reopened.  201 

General  Scott  to  General  Jackson. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  December  11,  1823. 

SEE: 

One  portion  of  the  American  community  has  long 
attributed  to  you  the  most  distinguished  magnanimity, 
and  the  other  portion  the  greatest  desperation,  in  your 
resentments.  Am  I  to  conclude  that  both  are  in  error  ? 
I  allude  to  circumstances  which  have  transpired  be 
tween  us,  and  which  need  not  here  be  recapitulated, 
and  to  the  fact  that  I  have  now  been  six  days  in  your 
immediate  vicinity  without  having  attracted  your  no 
tice.  As  this  is  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have 
been  within  a  hundred  miles  of  you,  and  as  it  is  barely 
possible  that  you  may  be  ignorant  of  my  presence,  I 
beg  leave  to  state  that  I  shall  not  leave  the  District 
before  the  morning  of  the  14th  inst. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

WINFIELD   SCOTT 
The  HON.  GENERAL  A.  JACKSON,  Senator,  etc. 

The  following  answer  was  promptly  returned : 
9* 


202  Adjustment. 

General  Jackson  to  General  Scott. 

MR.  O'NEiL's,  December  11,  1823. 

SIR: 

Your  letter  of  to-day  has  been  received.  Whether 
the  world  are  correct  or  in  error,  as  regards  my  "  mag 
nanimity,"  is  for  the  world  to  decide.  I  am  satisfied 
of  one  fact,  that  when  you  shall  know  me  better,  you 
will  not  be  disposed  to  harbor  the  opinion,  that  any 
thing  like  "  desperation  in  resentment "  attaches  to  me. 

Your  letter  is  ambiguous;  but,  concluding  from 
occurrences  heretofore,  that  it  was  written  with  friend 
ly  views,  I  take  the  liberty  of  saying  to  you,  that  when 
ever  you  shall  feel  disposed  to  meet  me  on  friendly 
terms,  that  disposition  will  not  be  met  by  any  other 
than  a  correspondent  feeling  on  my  part. 

have  the  honor  to  be,  sir, 
Your  most  obedient  servant, 

ANDREW  JACKSON. 

GENERAL  W.  SCOTT. 

Scott,  though  prepared  for  the  worst,  was  pleased 
with  Jackson's  reply,  and,  as  the  younger  man,  lost  no 
time  in  waiting  upon  the  honorable  Senator.  He  was 


Malice  m  Petto.  203 

graciously  received,  and  the  next  day  took  the  road  to 
the  West.  It  is  painful  to  reflect  that  so  amicable  a 
settlement  only  meant,  with  one  of  the  parties,  a  post 
ponement  of  revenge  to  a  more  "  convenient  season." 


CHAPTEK    XYII. 

TEMPERANCE    MOVEMENT MILITARY    INSTITUTES — TACTICS 

— DEATH     OF     GENERAL     BROWN MACOMB     PROMOTED 

ANIMATED    CORRESPONDENCE. 

IN  the  National  Gazette  of  Philadelphia  (Septem 
ber  22,  1821),  I  published  a  Scheme  for  Restricting  the 
'  Use  of  Ardent  Spirits  in  the  United  States,  in  which  I 
gave  a  glance  at  the  history  of  intemperance  from  the 
earliest  times,  and  its  frightful  statistics  among  our 
selves.  Mr.  "Walsh,  the  able  and  accomplished  editor, 
published  the  essay  in  a  supplement  of  thirteen  col 
umns,  and  heralded  it  with  high  praises  in  the  Gazette 
itself.  The  following  is  the  opening  paragraph  giving 
the  origin  of  the  essay : 


Temperance  Movement.  205 

"  It  is  now  many  years  since  the  writer  of  this 
essay  was  first  made  to  reflect,  with  some  intensity,  on 
the  vice  of  drunkenness,  whilst  endeavoring  to  apply  a 
remedy,  in  a  small  corps,  to  that  greatest  source  of 
disease  and  insubordination  in  the  rank  and  file  of  an 
army.  Having  the  attention  so  awakened,  and  subse 
quently  being  much  accustomed  to  change  of  place 
from  one  extreme  of  the  Union  to  another,  he  has  been 
led  to  observe,  with  a  more  than  usual  keenness,  the 
ravages  of  the  same  habit  among  the  more  numerous 
classes  of  the  community.  The  conviction  has  thus 
been  forced  upon  him  that,  of  all  accidental  evils,  this 
is  the  most  disastrous  to  our  general  population." 

The  principal  merit  of  the  essay  is  that  it  led  to 
the  formation  of  temperance  societies,  since  so  general, 
throughout  the  United  States. 

A  little  before  that  time,  I  had  become  a  member 
of  societies  for  the  prevention  of  pauperism,  and  the 
suppression  of  vice  and  immorality,  to  which  the  essay 
was  a  contribution. 

True  to  my  motto — when  solitary,  le  not  idle;  and 
to  the  maxim,  in  peace,  prepare  for  war /  I  conceived 
the  idea,  in  1818,  of  preparing  a  system  of  General 
Regulations  or  Military  Institutes  for  the  army.  After 


206  Military  Institutes. 

a  wide  study,  begun  long  before,  I  made  a  rigorous 
analysis  of  the  whole  subject,  and  submitted  it  to  the 
War  Department,  which  being  approved,  and  provided 
for  by  Congress,  I  duly  executed. 

This  was  the  first  time  that  the  subjects,  embraced, 
were  ever  reduced,  in  any  army,  to  a  regular  analysis, 
and  systematized  into  institutes.  The  Legislation  Mili- 
taire  of  France,  was  indeed,  most  copious,  containing 
all  that  can  be  desired  for  an  army,  in  the  field — ex 
cepting  tactics,  strategy,  and  engineering  —  each  of 
which  and  some  other  branches  of  war,  properly  re 
quiring  separate  treatises.  And  the  English  book  of 
General  Regulations^  was  also  composed  of  indepen 
dent  articles,  without  connection  or  system.  But  in 
the  Institutes^  besides  definitions  of  administration,  in 
struction,  service,  police,  subjects  treated  of — there  is  a 
due  logical  connection  and  dependence  between  the 
parts,  not  found  in  the  other  books  mentioned. 

How  the  auihor's  great  labors  on  this  and  his  tac 
tical  works  have  been  obscured,  mutilated,  and  pirated, 
by  permission  of  superior  authority,  from  1836,  down 
to  1861  inclusive,  to  the  injury  of  the  service,  through, 
I  must  confess,  my  neglect  of  my  own  interests,  may 
be  touched  upon  in  the  sequel  of  thia  narrative. 


Tactics  for  the  MiliUa.  207 

It  has  been  seen  that  I  was  president  of  a  board  of 
infantry  tactics  when  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain  arrived  in  February,  1815.  Their  labors  were 
hastily  and  imperfectly  concluded  by  that  great  event. 
Another  board,  on  the  same  subject,  of  which  I  was 
again  president,  met  at  "West  Point  in  1824.  Each  of 
these  boards  took,  as  its  basis,  the  French  tactics — the 
same  that  I  had  orally  and  practically  taught  in  the 
camp  of  instruction  at  Buffalo,  beginning  in  March, 
1814. 

Besides  the  Board  of  Tactics  for  the  army,  in  1824, 
I  was  president  of  another,  in  1826,  at  Washington, 
consisting  of  two  general  officers  of  the  militia — Major- 
General  T.  Cadwallader,  of  Philadelphia,  a  very  well 
read  soldier,  and  who,  in  the  war  of  1812-'15,  for 
some  time,  was  commander-in-chief  of  that  department 
— a  citizen  of  the  greatest  moral  weight  of  character 
— and  Brigadier-General  Sumner,  long  the  intelligent 
adjutant-general  of  Massachusetts — together  with  five 
army  officers.  This  board  was  instructed  to  report: 
1.  A  plan  for  the  organization  and  instruction  of  the 
whole  body  of  the  militia  of  the  United  States ;  2.  A 
system  of  artillery  tactics ;  3.  A  system  of  cavalry  tac 
tics ;  and  4.  A  system  of  infantry  and  rifle  tactics — all 


208  Death  of  Major- General  Brown. 

four  for  the  benefit  of  the  militia  of  the  Union.  The 
first  and  fourth  of  those  reports  were  from  Scott's  pen, 
and  of  the  fourth,  sixty  thousand  copies  were  printed 
by  order  of  Congress  at  once,  for  general  distribution. 

In  the  third  year  (February,  1828)  of  the  second 
Adams's  Administration — a  statesman  of  great  learning 
and  abilities ;  of  high  patriotism  and  conscientiousness 
— an  unostentatious  Christian — honest,  and  as  obsti 
nately  brave  as  any  Puritan  in  Cromwell's  time — 
Major-General  Brown,  general-in-chief  of  the  army, 
died,  and  Jackson  had  resigned  to  be  Governor  of 
Florida — which  left  me  senior  as  brevet-major-general, 
from  July  25th,  whereas  Games'  brevet  of  major-gen 
eral  only  gave  rank  from  August  15th,  and  Macomb's 
only  from  September  llth — all  in  1814.  But  Macomb's 
ordinary  commission  was  only  that  of  colonel  of  engi 
neers,  to  which  he  had  been  cut  down  at  the  last  re 
duction  of  the  army  in  1821.  Both  Scott  and  Gaines, 
therefore,  were  not  only  Macomb's  seniors,  by  brevet, 
but  also  as  brigadiers  by  ordinary  commission  over  his 
ordinary  commission  as  colonel.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  the  President  has  never  been  legally  bound  in 
making  promotions,  beyond  the  rank  of  colonel,  to 
restrict  himself,  absolutely,  to  seniority.  Hence  the 


Cabinet  Decide  to  Promote  Scott.  209 

question — Who  shall  be  selected  to  fill  Brown's  vacan 
cy  ?  became  quite  general. 

An  incident  now  occurred  which,  among  prudes, 
and  men  like  prudes,  may  be  considered  beneath  the 
dignity  of  history,  or  memoirs,  to  record. 

Two  ladies,  sisters,  of  great  excellence — Mrs.  Mason, 
of  Anacosta  Island,  Georgetown,  and  Mrs.  Rush,  wife 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  waited  upon  the  wife 
of  the  President  to  solicit  the  appointment  for  Macomb, 
who,  if  promoted,  as  they  said,  had  promised  to  make 
the  son-in-law  of  Mrs.  Mason  (Lieutenant  Cooper,  then 
at  Fortress  Monroe,  now  adjutant-general  of  the  Con 
federate  army)  an  aide-de-camp.  Mrs.  Adams,  mistress 
of  all  the  proprieties  of  the  sex,  and  her  "pride  of 
place,"  archly  replied:  "Truly  ladies,  though  Mes- 
dames  Maintenon  and  Pompadour  are  said  to  have 
appointed  all  the  generalissimos  of  their  times,  I  do 
not  think  that  such  matters  appertain  to  women ;  but 
if  they  did,  and  I  had  any  influence,  it  should  be  given 
to  Mrs.  General  Scott,  with  whom  I  accidentally,  in 
travelling,  last  summer,  became  acquainted."  (The' 
authority  for  this  statement  is  the  late  Dr.  Hunt,  who, 
as  family  physician,  happened  to  be  present,  and  who 
often  repeated  it  to  many  persons,  several  of  whom  are 


210    A  Secret  Fetch — Appointment  of  Maconib. 

still  living.)  All  this  time  I  happened  to  be  inspecting 
the  Indian  frontiers  of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas.  The 
ladies,  though  defeated  in  their  first  effort,  did  not  stop 
there.  At  their  instance,  a  master  now  took  the  mat 
ter  in  hand ;  for  Mr.  Secretary  Rush,  a  most  amiable 
and  persuasive  gentleman,  had  not  resided  at  a  Euro 
pean  court  (London)  without  improvement  in  the  arts 
of  insinuation.  The  President  held  an  evening  consul 
tation  with  many  of  his  cabinet  on  the  question — Who 
shall  be  the  new  general-in-chief  ?  present,  Mr.  Clay, 
Mr.  Southard,  Mr.  Wirt,  and  Mr.  Rush.  I  was  named 
and  approved  without  discussion  or  dissent.  The  four 
members  of  the  cabinet  happened  to  be  severally  en 
gaged  for  the  evening  to  the  distinguished  wife  of  a 
distinguished  Senator  (Johnston)  of  Louisiana.  All 
took  leave  of  the  President  together;  but  Mr.  Rush 
soon  turned  back  as  if  he  missed  his  gloves  or  hand 
kerchief.  The  game  was  now  readily  won ;  for  know 
ing  Mr.  Adams's  horror  of  bloodshed  in  private  com 
bat,  he  pressed  the  strong  probability,  according  to 
him,  of  a  deadly  affair  of  pistols  between  Scott  and 
Gaines  (of  which  there  was  not  the  slightest  danger) 
if  either  of  them  should  be  appointed  to  the  vacancy ; 
whereas,  as  he  argued,  with  Macomb  at  the  head  of  the 


Influence  of  'Woman.  211 

army,  all  would  be  acquiescent  and  harmonious!  It 
only  remains  to  be  added,  that  Mr.  Adams  confessed 
to  Mr.  Clay  and  other  cabinet  advisers,  after  the  nomi 
nation,  that,  to  save  bloodshed  he  had  changed  his 
mind; — that  Cooper  was  in  good  faith  appointed  aide- 
de-camp,  and  that  his  most  excellent  wife  (who  has 
been  kind  to  at  least  one  Union  prisoner  at  Richmond) 
was  brought  up  to  "Washington  and  to  her  affectionate 
mother. 

How  nugatory  are  human  institutions !  The  Salic 
law  may  be  established  in  monarchies,  and  women  ex 
cluded  from  the  polls,  as  well  as  from  office,  in  repub 
lics.  It  is  all  in  vain ;  for  there  is  "  a  higher  law," 
"  which  altereth  not " — the  result  of  civilization — that 
bends  imperial  man  to  the  stronger  will  of  the  weaker 
vessel ! 

A  long  an,d  very  animated  correspondence  ensued 
between  the  "War  Department  and  myself  consequent 
on  its  order  placing  me  under  the  command  of  Macomb, 
a  junior  major-general — that  is,  a  superior  under  an  in 
ferior  officer.  As  all  the  letters  are  in  print  they  need 
not  be  reproduced  in  this  narrative.  The  heads  of  my 
argument  against  the  anomaly,  may,  however,  be  suc 
cinctly  stated  thus:  That  Macomb,  though  a  major- 


212  Value  of  Brevet  Rank,  etc. 

general,  was  not  the  major-general  of  the  whole  army 
— there  being  several  others  of  the  same  grade  (by 
brevet)  and  no  such  grade,  in  law,  as  the  major-general 
or  general-in-chief — the  latter  being  a  designation  of 
convenience  only,  and  meaning,  simply,  the  senior  of 
several  others  of  the  same  grade,  like  commodore,  at 
that  day,  meaning  the  senior  commander  of  several 
vessels  besides  his  own,  whether  commanded  by  mid 
shipmen  or  post  captains.  2.  That  rank  is  rank, 
whether  the  same  be  conferred  by  ordinary  or  brevet 
commission — both  being  equally  the  creatures  of  the 
law — unless  the  law  has  made  a  difference  to  the  preju 
dice  of  one  or  the  other  rank,  as  in  the  61st  article  of 
war,  which  is  against  brevet  rank — only  within  regi 
ments  or  some  other  similar  corps,  as  the  corps  of  engi 
neers.  I  did  not  claim  the  right  to  command  Macomb, 
unless,  coming  together  on  common  duty,  when  one 
would  be  obliged  to  command  the  other,  which  it  was 
always  competent  for  the  Executive,  by  arrangement, 
to  avoid,  as  I  might  be  rightly  assigned  to  some  sep 
arate  command  or  duty,  in  direct  correspondence  with 
the  Executive,  or  laid,  by  the  latter  on  the  shelf,  as  has 
become  so  common  recently.  I  simply  contended  that 
no  senior,  in  rank,  of  the  same  grade,  whether  by  brevet 


Mr.  Adams  in  Controversy.  213 

or  otherwise,  had  ever  been,  or  could  be,  legally 
placed  under  a  junior  in  the  British  or  American 
army,  except  by  the  consent  of  the  senior,  and,  that, 
the  rules  and  articles  of  war  were  the  same  in  the  two 
armies. 

Mr.  Adams,  as  was  well  known,  read,  during  his 
presidency,  with  conscientiousness,  every  paper,  con 
nected  with  every  important  subject,  that  required 
Executive  decision,  and,  in  this  controversy,  in  which, 
by  inveiglement,  he  had  become,  virtually,  a  principal 
— he  did  more,  he  wrote,  himself,  most  of  the  replies 
to  my  formidable  appeals  and  demonstrations.  With 
the  obstinacy  of  a  Roundhead,  equal  to  his  invincible 
honesty,  he  brought  to  bear  against  me  all  the  great 
resources  of  his  rhetoric  and  ratiocination;  and,  per 
haps,  it  may  even  be  added — some  of  the  tricks  of  the 
schoolmen — being  hard  ppessed  and  animated  to  for- 
getfulness.  One  of  his  clever  fetches  overwhelmed  me 
for  a  moment.  Up  to  April,  1818,  all  brevets  in  the 
army,  including  mine,  had  been  conferred  by  the  Presi 
dent,  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate.  Ergo, 
they  had  been  unconstitutionally  given,  or  were  of  lit 
tle  or  no  worth ;  for  the  supreme  law  had  declared — 
that  "  Congress  may,  by  law,  vest  the  appointment  of 


214  Scott  in  Reply. 

such  inferior  officers  as  they  think  proper  in  the  Presi 
dent  alone."  *  Recovering  from  the  blow,  I  recollected 
that,  in  all  tariffs  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners  of  war, 
agreed  upon  by  belligerents,  the  value  of  every  grade 
of  rank  is  estimated  in  privates.  Thus  in  the  cartel 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  the 
war  of  1812-'15,  a  brigadier-general  is  put  down  as 
worth  thirty  privates,  and  a  major-general  at  only  ten 
more.  Consequently,  President  Madison  in  making 
me  a  major-general,  by  brevet,  had  not  made  a  major- 
general  out  and  out  (under  the  act  of  Congress),  but 
only  added  the  fractional  value  of  ten  privates  to  the 
grade  of  brigadier-general  before  (in  my  case),  solemn 
ly  approved  by  the  Senate ;  that  is,  but  a  fourth  of  the 
full  value  of  a  major-general.  To  this  reply,  over 
whelming  in  its  turn,  I  added  the  resolution  of  Con 
gress  giving  me  a  gold  medal,  and  two  other  acts,  all 
recognizing,  by  express  citation,  my  higher  rank.  I 
then  turned  upon  my  great  adversary  in  the  contro 
versy,  and  triumphantly  summed  up  by  saying — if 
that  presentation  of  my  case  amounted  to  nothing, 

*  This  case  shows  that  it  is  as  dangerous  to  possess  certain  arts  of 
rhetoric  as  to  wear  concealed  weapons,  as  even  good  men  are  liable,  un 
der  excitement,  to  use  them  improperly. 


Smgular  Coincidence.  215 

"  why  then,  the  world  and  all  that's  in  it,  is  noth 
ing;  the  covering  sky  is  nothing;  Bohemia  nothing 
[etc.],  for  nothing,  have  these  nothings,  if  this  be 
nothing ! " 

Mr.  Adams  confessed  himself  pleased  with  the  earn 
estness  of  this  rejoinder ;  but  it  seems  to  belong  to  the 
creed  of  Roundheads,  notwithstanding  their  great  char 
acteristics  for  good,  in  the  past,  and  for  the  future, 
never  to  acknowledge  error. 

An  incident  occurred  in  this  controversy,  so  curi 
ous,  that  it  seems  to  be  entitled  to  a  record  in  this 
place.  The  late  adjutant-general  (Jones),  a  good  sol 
dier  and  a  better  man,  calling  on  business  one  morn 
ing,  ftyund  the  President  reading  one  of  my  letters  then 
just  received,  and  laughing  heartily.  "  Here,"  said 
Mr.  Adams,  giving  an  abstract  of  the  letter  in  his 
hand — "  the  general  is  commenting  on  the  61st,  and 
62d  articles  "  of  war — relative  to  rank  and  command, 
which,  like  the  whole  series,  had  come  down  from 
September,  1776,  as  borrowed  by  Congress  from  Eng 
land,  without  change,  till  1806  —  and  charges  that 
"  some  bungler,  no  doubt  a  clerk  in  the  War  Depart 
ment,  had  ignorantly  made  the  revision."  Renewing 
his  laughter,  Mr.  Adams  added :  "  I  am  that  bung- 


216  Power  and  Obstinacy  Succeed. 

ling  clerk,  for  being  a  member  of  the  Senate's  com 
mittee,  to  which  the  subject  was  referred,  in  1806,  the 
labor  of  the  revision  fell  to  me ! " 


CHAPTER    XYIII. 

BLACK     HAWK     WAR CHOLERA    IK    THE    AEMY INDIAN 

TREATIES ROMANTIC   TALE. 

IN  1832,  Indian  hostilities  of  some  magnitude  broke 
out  against  the  then  frontier  settlements  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi.  Brigadier-General  Atkinson,  a  dear  friend 
of  the  autobiographer,  an  excellent  man  and  fine  sol 
dier,  collected  such  forces  as  were  at  hand — regulars, 
under  Colonel  (afterwards  President)  Taylor,  with  a 
much  greater  number  of  Illinois  volunteers  —  and 
marched  against  Black  Hawk  and  his  volunteer  band 
of  confederate  Sacs  and  Foxes,  who  were  supported, 
not  only  by  the  sympathies,  but  material,  secret  aid,  of 
their  neighbors,  the  Winnebago  tribe.  As  the  exam- 
10 


218  Asiatic  CJwlera — Scott  the  Doctor. 

pie  of  Black  Hawk  was  likely  to  become  infectious 
among  many  other  Indians  in  that  quarter — Sioux,  etc., 
etc.,  Scott,  who  commanded  at  the  time  in  the  Eastern 
half  of  the  United  States,  was,  to  meet  contingencies, 
ordered  to  the  Northwest,  with  a  respectable  number 
of  regulars  taken  from  the  seaboard  defences.  Ascend 
ing  Lake  Huron,  the  Asiatic  cholera,  the  new  scourge 
of  mankind  which  had  just  before  been  brought  to 
Quebec,  found  its  way  up  the  chain  of  waters,  in  time 
to  infect  the  troops  of  Scott's  expedition  at  different 
points  on  the  lakes.  In  his  particular  steamer,  the  dis 
ease  broke  out  suddenly,  and  with  fatal  violence.  The 
only  surgeon  on  board,  in  a  panic,  gulped  down  half  a 
bottle  of  wine ;  went  to  bed,  sick,  and  ought  to  have 
died.  There  was  nobody  left  that  knew  anything  of 
the  healing  art,  or  of  the  frightful  distemper — only 
Scott,  who,  anticipating  its  overtaking  him  in  the 
Northwest,  had  taken  lessons  from  Surgeon  Mower, 
stationed  in  New  York — eminent  in  his  profession, 
and  of  a  highly  inquiring,  philosophic  mind — in  respect 
to  the  character,  and  mode  of  treating  the  disease. 
Thus  he  became  the  doctor  on  the  afflicting  occasion — 
no  doubt  a  very  indifferent  one,  except  in  labor  and 
intrepidity.  He  had  provided  the  whole  expedition 


Chicogo — Atkinson  Triumphs.  219 

with  the  remedies  suggested  by  Doctor  Mower,  which, 
on  board  his  steamer,  he  applied,  in  great  part,  with 
his  own  hand  to  the  sick.  His  principal  success  was 
in  preventing  a  general  panic,  and,  mirdbile  dictu ! 
actually  cured,  in  the  incipient  stage,  by  command, 
several  individuals  of  that  fatal  preparation  for  the 
reception  of  the  malady.  It  continued  several  days 
after  landing,  in  July,  at  Chicago — then  but  a  hamlet. 
As  soon  as  the  troops  had  become  sufficiently  convales 
cent  they  were  marched  thence  across  the  wild  prairies, 
inhabited  by  nomads  of  Potawatamies  —  Indians  of 
doubtful  neutrality.  Scott  preceded  the  detachments, 
and  on  arriving  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  was  glad  to  find 
that  Atkinson,  after  a  most  fagging  march  of  weeks 
and  hundreds  of  miles,  following  the  devious  retreat  of 
the  Hawk,  finally  overtook  him  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Badaxe  in  the  act  of  crossing  the  Mississippi,  with  his 
band,  and  in  a  gallant  combat,  killed  many  of  his  fol 
lowers,  made  others  prisoners,  and  dispersed  the  re 
mainder.  The  principal  chief  and  many  hundreds  of 
his  people,  men,  women,  and  children,  escaped  across 
the  river;  soon,  however,  to  be  brought  in  by  the 
Sioux,  who  were  intimidated  by  the  knowledge  that 
reinforcements  were  approaching  from  the  East.  All 


220  A  Nolle  Volunteer. 

the  fugitives  from  the  battle,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Mississippi,  were  ultimately  brought  in.  Inspecting 
the  hospital  at  Fort  Crawford,  Prairie  du  Chien  (Tay 
lor's  post),  Scott  was  struck  with  the  remarkably  fine 
head  of  a  tall  volunteer,  lying  on  his  side,  and  seeking 
relief  in  a  book.  To  the  question — "  What  have  you 
there,  my  friend  ? "  the  wounded  man  pointed  to  the 
title  page  of  Young's  Night  Thoughts.  Scott  sat 
down  on  the  edge  of  the  bunk,  already  interested,  and 
learned  this  story : 

The  reader's  brother,  Mr.  Paine,  was  Black  Hawk's 
first  victim.  Not  in  a  spirit  of  revenge,  but  to  protect 
the  surviving  frontier  settlers,  the  wounded  man  had 
become  a  volunteer.  Hiding  into  the  battle  of  the  Bad- 
axe,  he  passed  an  armed  Indian  boy,  not  more  than  in 
his  fourteenth  year,  whom  he  might  easily  have  sabred, 
but  that  he  thought  him  a  harmless  child.  The  incip 
ient  warrior,  however,  fired,  and  lodged  a  ball  against 
the  spine  of  the  noble  volunteer,  who,  though  still 
suffering  greatly,  declared  that  he  preferred  his  con 
dition  to  the  remorse  he  should  have  felt  if  he  had 
killed  the  boy  believing  him  to  have  been  harmless. 
Scott  soothed  the  Christian  hero  by  giving  him  the 
story  (told  above)  of  the  Robinson  Crusoe  Pain,  of  the 


Rock  Island — Assemblage  of  Indians.        221 

Isle  of  Cape  Breton,  and  took  leave  with  moistened 
eyes. 

Scott,  with  his  principal  forces,  descended  the  Mis 
sissippi  to  Rock  Island,  a  little  above  the  mouth  of 
Eock  River,  which  he  had  given  to  all  the  neighboring 
Indians — friendly,  neutral,  or  lately  in  arms — as  the 
point  of  assemblage  for  the  adjustment,  by  treaty,  etc., 
of  the  rewards  or  punishments  due  to  conduct  in  the 
recent  troubles.  There  soon  approached  the  confeder 
ate  Sacs  and  Foxes,  noble  tribes,  who  reminded  one  of 
Dryden's  fine  triplet :  t 

"  Free  as  nature  first  made  man, 

Ere  the  base  laws  of  servitude  began, 
When  wild  in  woods  the  noble  savage  ran." 

The  cunning  "Winnebagoes  were  also  coming  in,  as 
well  as  the  (for  a  time)  doubtful  bands  of  Sioux,  and 
the  not  unfriendly  Menominees.  But  just  then  the 
cholera  broke  out  among  the  troops  at  the  island,  in 
all  the  violence  of  a  first  attack.  On  that  account, 
Scott  sent  directions  to  all  those  Indians  not  to  ap 
proach  him  till  a  new  summons.  In  the  mean  time 
an  incident  occurred,  like  several  others  of  a  later  date, 
at  the  same  place,  to  illustrate  the  manners — morals, 
mceurs — of  our  red  men — not  yet  taught  by  his  white 


222  Cholera  Again — Indian  Anecdote. 

brethren  to  lie,  to  cheat  and  steal,  except  to  and  from 
an  enemy. 

There  were  found  at  Fort  Armstrong,  Kock  Island, 
the  appointed  scene  of  diplomacy,  three  civil  prisoners, 
Sacs,  confined  by  an  Indian  agent  on  the  charge  of 
murder  —  that  is,  surprising  and  killing  a  party  of 
Menominees  (old  enemies),  in  exact  retaliation,  and 
according  to  Indian  habits,  of  a  like  act  on  the  part 
of  the  latter. 

In  reference  to  the  terrible  cholera,  Scott  said  to 
the  prisoners :  "  If  I  permit  you,  as  you  desire,  to  seek 
safety  in  the  prairies,  and,  if  attacked  with  the  disease, 
to  cure  yourselves,  with  your  own  unscientific  reme 
dies — will  you,  when  the  cholera  shall  have  left  the 
island,  return  here  to  be  dealt  with — probably  hung — 
as  a  civil  court  may  adjudge?"  They  gave  the  re 
quired  pledge. 

It  was  accordingly  arranged,  that  on  the  exhibition 
of  a  certain  signal,  hung  out  from  a  dead  tree,  at  an 
elevated  point  of  the  island,  they  would  return.  Load 
ed  with  hard  bread,  and  armed  with  guns,  they  were 
put  ashore  on  the  mainland.  The  cholera  having 
passed  away,  the  signal  was  given,  when,  in  a  day  or 
two,  the  three  murderers  presented  themselves !  Scott 


Indians  Recalled — Anecdote.  223 

placed  them  again  on  parole,  to  await  the  answer  to 
an  appeal,  in  their  behalf,  he  had  already  made  to 
Washington.  The  answer  finally  came  and  was  favor 
able. 

The  new  summons  was  now  given  to  all  the  tribes 
before  mentioned,  and  obeyed,  when  conferences  and 
grand  councils  of  war  for  the  settlements,  before 
alluded  to,  commenced.  While  these  were  pending, 
a  demand  came  up,  from  a  judge  of  Illinois,  sixty  miles 
below,  for  an  Indian  murderer,  his  name  unknown, 
but  who  had  been  distinctly  traced  to  the  camp  of  the 
great  body  of  Sacs  and  Foxes  whom  the  chiefs  had 
contrived  to  hold  in  neutrality  during  the  recent  hos 
tilities  —  influenced  mainly  by  Keokuk — not  a  hered 
itary  chief,  and  only  a  principal  brave  or  warrior, 
the  sense  bearer,  orator,  and  treasurer  of  the  confeder 
acy.  The  demand  was  communicated  to  this  remark 
able  man.  After  a  little  musing,  the  painful  truth  of 
the  story  seemed  to  flash  upon  him.  With  candor  he 
stated  the  grounds  of  his  fears.  A  young  brave  of  some 
twenty  years  of  age,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  chief, 
had  long  sought  to  marry  a  handsome  young  squaw, 
the  daughter  of  another  famous  chief;  but  the  maiden 
repulsed  the  lover,  applying  to  him  the  most  oppro- 


224  Romantic  Marriage. 

brious  epithet — squaw — he  never  having  taken  a  scalp, 
killed  a  grizzly  bear,  nor,  by  surprise,  robbed  an  enemy 
of  his  arms,  horse,  or  wife.  Hence,  she  said  her  lover 
was  not  a  firave,  but  a  woman.  Her  sympathies  were, 
moreover,  with  Black  Hawk — her  only  brother  having 
run  off  with  that  reckless  chief.  All  these  particulars 
were  not  yet  known  to  the  wise  treasurer;  for  he 
had  only  been  surprised  at  the  change  of  conduct 
in  the  ~belle  sauvage,  who  had  so  suddenly  married 
her  lover.  Keokuk,  in  good  faith,  said  he  would  in 
quire,  for  his  great  care  had  been  to  save  his  people 
from  destructive  war  and  entire  spoliation,  with  which 
Black  Hawk's  conduct  had  caused  them  to  be  threat 
ened. 

The  next  day  he  called  at  headquarters  and  whis 
pered  that  his  fears  had  proved  prophetic;  that  the 
happy  bridegroom  had,  for  the  good  of  the  confeder 
acy,  confessed  himself  to  be  the  guilty  party,  and  was 
at  hand ;  but  begged  the  general  to  repeat,  in  a  full 
council,  the  demand,  etc.  This  was  accordingly  done, 
and  as  soon  as  Scott's  peroration — I  demand  the  mur 
derer  !  was  interpreted,  the  young  Apollo  stood  up  and 
said :  I  am  the  man  !  "With  a  violent  stamp  and  voice 
Scott  called  out — the  guard  !  A  sergeant  with  a  dozen 


jBrideyroorn?  s  Terrible  Trials.  225 

grenadiers  rushed  in,  seized  the  offender  and  carried 
him  off. 

When  the  blacksmith  began  to  place  and  rivet  irons 
upon  him  he  struggled  furiously.  It  took  several  of 
the  guard  to  hold  him  down.  He  said  he  did  not  come 
forward  to  be  ironed ;  he  did  not  wish  to  be  tried,  that 
he  preferred  to  be  shot  at  once.  He  was  sent  down  to 
the  Illinois  court,  then  in  session ;  put  on  his  trial,  and 
notwithstanding  the  strong  circumstantial  evidence, 
and  that  it  was  proven  he  had  acknowledged  the  kill 
ing  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight — a  tricky  lawyer,  well  pro 
vided  with  the  means  of  bribing,  no  doubt,  by  the 
chiefs  of  the  confederacy,  obtained  from  the  jury  a 
verdict  of  not  guilty. 

The  acquitted  had  yet  to  pass  another  ordeal — one 
of  fire  and  water.  A  swift  horse,  halfway  between  the 
court  and  the  Mississippi  (a  few  hundred  yards  off)  had 
been  provided  for  the  occasion ;  but  frontier  men  al 
ways  have  their  rifles  in  hand,  and  their  horses  ready. 
The  lawyer  hastened  his  client  out  of  court,  and  gained 
for  him  a  good  start.  "  Fly,  young  man,  or  your  dear- 
bought  Helen  will  soon  be  a  widow !  "  In  a  minute, 
followed  by  some  whizzing  shots,  he  was  in  the  saddle. 
In  another,  "  horse  and  rider  "  were  plunged  into  "  the 
10* 


226  Escape — Conferences — Councils. 

great  father  of  waters,"  swimming  side  by  side. 
came  up  furiously  a  dozen  mounted  riflemen,  who 
threw  away  their  lead  at  the  too  distant  game.  The 
last  news  of  the  romantic  Sac  represented  him  as  the 
happy  father  of  a  thriving  family  of  "young  barba 
rians,"  by  more  than  a  "  Dacian  mother," — all  far  be 
yond  the  Mississippi. 

Conferences  were  held  with  the  Menominees  and 
Sioux,  and  treaties  signed  with — first  the  Winnebagoes, 
and  next  with  the  confederate  Sacs  and  Foxes,  in  sep 
arate  general  councils.  There  was  a  second  commis 
sioner,  united  with  Scott,  in  these  negotiations — Gov 
ernor  Reynolds.  But  the  wearer  of  the  sword,  before 
Indians,  is  the  effective  orator. 

The  spirit  of  forbearance  and  liberality,  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  were  the  prominent  features  in 
those  settlements.  Scott  opened  each  council  with 
stern  reproach — reminding  the  confederate  tribes  that, 
by  their  failure  to  restrain  one  of  their  chiefs,  Black 
Hawk,  from  making  an  unjust  war  upon  the  unoffend 
ing  white  settlers,  near  them,  the  whole  confederacy 
had  forfeited  as  much  of  their  territory  as  the  conquer 
ors  might  choose  to  claim  as  an  indemnity;  and  the 
Winnebagoes  were  informed,  that  their  secret  en- 


Peace  Dictated — Indians  Grateful. 

couragement  and  preparations  to  join  in  'highly  crim 
inal  hostilities,  made  them  liable  to  like  punishment. 

These  emphatic  denunciations  being  made  perfectly 
clear,  through  excellent  interpreters,  and  their  justice 
shown  to  be  indisputable,  Scott,  on  each  occasion,  pro 
ceeded  :  "  Such  is  justice,  between  nation  and  nation, 
against  which  none  can  rightfully  complain ;  but  as 
God  in  his  dealings  with  human  creatures  tempers 
justice  with  mercy — or  else  the  whole  race  of  man 
would  soon  have  perished—so  shall  we,  commissioners, 
in  humble  imitation  of  divine  example,  now  treat  you, 
my  red  brethren !  who  have  offended  both  against  God 
and  your  great  human  father,  at  "Washington."  He 
then,  in  each  case,  demanded  a  portion  of  their  super 
fluous  territory — from  the  confederates,  that  next  to  the 
Mississippi,  now  the  best  part  of  Iowa ;  and  from  the 
"Winnebagoes  the  northern  part  of  Illinois — paying 
liberally  for  the  cessions,  and  stipulating  for  the  sup 
port  at  the  cost  of  the  United  States,  of  schools  and 
workshops,  to  teach  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and 
the  more  necessary  mechanical  arts. 

Grateful  replies  were  returned  in  each  council. 
That  of  Keokuk,  on  the  part  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
was  full  of  sound  sentiment,  power,  and  pathos. 


228  Ball — Pantomime — Illumination. 

The  evening  after  signing  the  last  treaty,  the  gen 
eral  gave  a  grand  dinner  to  the  principal  chiefs,  and 
had  later,  a  brilliant  display  of  pyrotechnics — that  is, 
the  throwing  of  fire  balls  from  mortars,  and  firing  of 
single  and  batteries  of  rockets,  which  caused  much 
shouting  of  delight  from  the  Indians  encamped  on  the 
mainland — Rock  Island  being  in  the  centre  of  an 
amphitheatre  of  high  hills  —  notwithstanding  their 
usual  nil  admirari,  or  phlegm. 

The  young  officers  of  the  army — all  volunteers  had 
been  discharged  by  Scott,  soon  after  the  battle  of  the 
Badaxe — had  a  dance  on  the  green  turf  at  the  same 
time — reels  and  quadrilles — with  young  Iwaves — the 
Indian  mwurs,  like  those  of  the  Turks,  forbidding  that 
the  red  women  should  mix  themselves  up,  in  public, 
with  their  male  superiors — barbarians!  Many  of  the 
softer  sex,  however,  were  allowed  to  look  on  the 
dancers,  and  showed  by  their  giddy  chatterings  that 
they  would  have  been  happier  if  whirled  about  in  the 
dance  by  those  charming  young  white  braves  ! 

Ah !  how  sad  for  man,  and  woman  too,  if  not 
allowed,  in  youth  and  innocency,  to  converse,  to  talk, 
to  play  and  laugh  together. 

The  male  partners  of  our  officers  were  quick  in 


Winding  Up — Contentment.  229 

step  and  imitation,  as  well  as  in  loud  laughter,  at  every 
turn.  A  band  furnished  the  music  and  heightened  the 
joy  of  all. 

Keokuk,  too,  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  enter 
tainment  by  a  pantomime,  which  needed  no  interpre 
tation,  of  one  of  his  successful  expeditions  against  a 
hostile  party.  First  the  tedious  march;  streams  to 
swim ;  next  the  rapid  run,  and  now  the  stealthy  step- 
beckoning  to  his  followers  the  discovery  of  the  unsus 
pecting  enemy  at  camp  fires  with  rifles  laid  aside, 
waiting  a  moment  longer  for  the  cooked  venison  they 
were  destined  never  to  eat ; — then  the  rush  upon  the 
unarmed,  and  the  slaying.  In  a  moment  all  was  over, 
but  the  shouting.  Bigotini  was  never  happier  in  pan 
tomime  at  the  Paris  Opera. 

A  war  dance  was  added  by  the  same  accomplished 
hero  in  peace  as  in  war,  whom  Scott  had  solemnly  in 
vested  with  the  rank  and  broad  silver  medal  of  a  chief, 
with  the  consent  of  the  tribe,  and  on  an  equal  footing 
with  the  proudest  who  had  inherited  the  title  through 
long  generations. 

The  sequel  of  the  late  troubles  were  thus  closed, 
when  all,  of  both  colors,  dispersed,  contented  and 
cheerful. 


230  Complimentary  Notices. 

It  was  in  allusion  to  the  cholera  and  the  foregoing 
settlements  with  the  Indians,  that  General  Cass,  then 
Secretary  of  War,  now  one  of  the  most  venerable  of 
American  citizens,  after  a  long  life  of  usefulness  and 
distinction — without  one  error  in  morals,  and  but  few 
in  politics — addressed  to  Scott  a  letter  containing  this 
passage : 

"  Allow  me  to  congratulate  you,  sir,  upon  this  for 
tunate  consummation  of  your  arduous  duties,  and 
to  express  my  entire  approbation  of  the  whole  course 
of  your  proceedings,  during  a  series  of  difficulties 
requiring  higher  moral  courage  than  the  opera 
tions  of  an  active  campaign,  under  ordinary  circum 
stances." 

A  published  letter  from  an  intelligent  officer  of  the 
army,  still  unknown,  but  supposed  to  have  been  the 
lamented  Captain  Richard  Bache  (a  descendant  of 
Dr.  Franklin),  deserves  a  place  in  this  narrative. 
It  is  more  in  detail,  and  better  motive  than  the  Secre 
tary's  : 

He  says  that  "  the  general's  course  of  conduct  on 
that  occasion  should  establish  for  him  a  reputation  not 
inferior  to  that  which  he  has  earned  in  the  battle  field ; 
and  should  exhibit  him  not  only  as  a  warrior,  but  as  a 


Anonymous  Applause.  231 

man — not  only  as  the  herb  of  battles,  but  as  the  hero 
of  humanity.  It  is  well  known  that  the  troops  in  that 
service  suffered  severely  from  the  cholera,  a  disease 
frightful  enough  from  its  rapid  and  fatal  effects,  but 
which  came  among  us  the  more  so,  from  the  known  in 
experience  of  our  medical  men,  and  from  the  general 
belief,  at  that  time,  in  its  contagiousness.  Under  such 
circumstances  it  was  clearly  the  general's  duty  to  give 
the  best  general  directions  he  could  for  proper  attend 
ance  on  the  sick,  and  for  preventing  the  spread  of  the 
disease.  When  he  had  done  this,  his  duty  was  per 
formed,  and  he  might  have  left  the  rest  to  his  medi 
cal  officers.  But  such  was  not  his  course.  He  thought 
he  had  other  duties  to  perform,  that  his  personal  safe 
ty  must  be  disregarded  to  visit  the  sick,  to  cheer  the 
well,  to  encourage  the  attendants,  to  set  an  example 
to  all,  and  to  prevent  a  panic — in  a  word,  to  save 
the  lives  of  others  at  the  risk  of  his  own.  All  this 
he  did  faithfully,  and  when  he  could  have  had  no 
other  motive  than  that  of  doing  good.  Here  was  no 
glory  to  be  acquired;  here  was  none  of  the  excite 
ments  of  the  battle  field;  here  was  no  shame  to  be 
avoided,  or  disgrace  to  be  feared;  because  his  gene- 
eral  arrangements  and  directions  to  those  whose  part 


232  Continuation,  etc. 

it  was  to  battle  with  sickness,  had  satisfied  duty.  His 
conduct  then  exhibited  a  trait  in  his  character  which 
made  a  strong  impression  on  me,  and  which,  in  my 
opinion,  justice  requires  should  not  be  overlooked." 


CHAPTEK    XIX. 

REJOINS    HIS    FAMILY — ORDERED    TO    CHARLESTON NULLI 
FICATION INCIDENTS PEACE   RESTORED. 

SCOTT  now  hastened  to  join  his  family,  at  West 
Point,  in  their  retreat  from  the  cholera  in  ISTew  York. 
He  himself,  always  in  its  presence,  experienced  symp 
toms  of  the  infection ;  but  without  taking  a  remedy, 
he  had,  so  far,  escaped  prostration. 

Passing  through  Cincinnati,  he  told  the  eminent 
Dr.  Drake,  judging  by  his  usual  feelings,  that  the  evil 
was  about  to  burst  upon  the  inhabitants,  which  hap 
pened  the  next  day.  Sleeping  at  Chambersburg, 
where  he  arrived  late  at  night,  he  was  much  cramped, 
and  learned,  next  morning,  that  a  cholera  patient  was 
just  dead  on  the  same  floor.  At  Philadelphia  he  told 


234:       Reports  to  the  President  at  Washington. 

his  friends,  Professors  Chapman  and  Gibson,  that  the 
disease  was  still  lingering  with  them,  and  always  well 
on  the  road,  he  might  have  said  the  same  thing  at  New 
York.  Here,  eating  a  sumptuous  dinner,  for  the  first 
time  in  many  months,  with  wine,  at  Delmonico's,  he 
took  the  evening  steamer  for  West  Point,  with  stron 
ger  premonitions  than  ever  before ;  lay  down  to  sleep, 
determined  if,  on  waking  up,  the  symptoms  continued, 
to  pass  his  family  and  die  somewhere  beyond  them. 
Happily,  getting  into  a  healthy  atmosphere,  he,  at  the 
end  of  two  hours,  found  himself  again  well. 

It  was  now  about  the  4th  of  November.  But  little 
rest  with  his  family  was  allowed.  Having  done  much 
work,  more  was  demanded.  In  a  few  days  he  received 
an  order  from  the  War  Department,  marked  confiden 
tial,  to  hasten  to  Washington.  He  passed,  unknowing 
ly,  Mr.  Secretary  Cass  on  the  road  to  the  North. 
Scott,  arriving  in  the  evening,  had  no  one  to  report 
to,  but  President  Jackson  himself.  Waiting  upon  him 
at  once,  he,  after  a  gracious  reception,  adverted  to  the 
certainty  that  South  Carolina  would  very  soon  be  out 
of  the  Union — either  by  nullification  or  secession.  On 
that  probability,  he  condescendingly  invited  Scott's 
views  as  to  the  best  measures  of  counteraction — he  him- 


Scott's  Suggestions  Made  Instructions.        235 

self  being  patriotically  resolved  to  stand  his  ground — 
The  Union  must  and  shall  ~be  preserved.  Scott,  in 
reply,  suggested  strong  garrisons  for  Fort  Moultrie 
(Sumter  was  not  quite  above  ground),  Castle  Pinckney, 
and  the  arsenal  at  Augusta,  Georgia.  The  latter  was 
filled  with  the  materiel  of  war — then  easily  seized  and 
emptied  by  a  sudden  expedition  across  the  bridge  that 
made  Hamburg,  in  South  Carolina,  a  faubourg  of  Au 
gusta — there  being  always,  in  both  places,  hundreds  of 
cotton  wagons  harnessed  up.  He  added,  that  besides 
troops,  a  sloop-of-war  and  some  revenue  cutters  would 
be  needed  in  Charleston  to  enforce  the  collection  of 
duties  on  foreign  importations.  "  Proceed  at  once  and 
execute  those  views.  You  have  my  carte  blanche,  in 
respect  to  troops ;  the  vessels  shall  be  there,  and  writ 
ten  instructions  shall  follow  you,"  were  the  President's 
prompt  orders,  given  orally. 

In  the  act  of  taking  leave,  Scott  was  invited  to  wait 
a  moment  for  supper.  He  replied  that  as  he  should 
proceed  South  in  the  morning,  he  had  only  that  hour 
for  calling  upon  his  friend,  Ex-President  Adams,  a  lit 
tle  distance  off.  "  That's  right,"  said  General  Jackson, 
"  never  forget  a  friend."  Mr.  Adams  astonished  Scott 
not  a  little  by  two  remarks :  1.  "  You  are  going  South 


236  Interview  with  Mr.  Adams. 

to  watch  the  nullifiers."  (There  was  no  intercourse 
between  him  and  his  successor  whatever.)  2.  "  Mr. 
Calhoun  will  be  the  first  to  give  way.  He  will  show 
the  white  feather!" 

Scott  reminded  Mr.  Adams  that  this  was  about  his 
usual  time  for  making  his  regular  tour  of  inspection 
along  the  Southern  seacoast.  "  Yes,"  he  reiterated, 
"  to  watch  the  nullifiers." 

Scott  reached  Charleston  a  few  days  after  the  passage 
of  the  ordinance  of  nullification.  On  the  journey  he 
had  twisted  a  little  an  ankle.  This  was  fortunate,  and 
he  made  the  most  of  the  accident  to  cover  delays  at 
Charleston,  Savannah,  and  Augusta ;  for  it  was  impor 
tant  to  the  interests  of  uninterrupted  peace,  that  he 
should  not,  by  open  preparations  for  defence,  precipi 
tate  hostilities, — the  minds  of  nullifiers,  about  half  of 
the  population,  being  much  inflamed,  and  on  the  qui 
vive.  As  biennial  inspector,  he  contrived,  by  a  little 
hobbling,  to  visit  Fort  Moultrie  and  Castle  Pinckney ; 
gave  confidential  instructions  to  enlarge  and  strengthen 
the  fort,  etc.  Orders  were  also  sent  for  the  handfuls 
of  troops  (single  companies,  from  many  points)  neces 
sary  to  complete  garrisons.  Thence  he  visited  Augus 
ta  in  the  same  way,  and  for  a  like  purpose.  That  being 


Visits  Charleston,  Augusta,  and  Savannah.     237 

accomplished,  lie  fell  down  to  Savannah,  where  he  laid 
himself  up  rather  more  than  the  improved  ankle  re 
quired,  because  an  early  return  to  Fort  Moultrie  would 
unquestionably  have  betrayed  the  special  purpose  of 
his  presence;  have  caused  an  immediate  attempt  to 
seize  Fort  Moultrie,  and,  probably,  an  intestine  war,  as 
bad  as  that  which  is  now  (February,  1864),  afflicting 
the  good  old  Union. 

While  lying  at  Savannah,  awaiting  a  nearer  ap 
proach  of  the  impending  crisis  in  South  Carolina,  the 
reply,  below,  was  written  to  the  Honorable  William  C. 
Preston,  afterwards  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
— then  a  leading  member  both  of  the  legislature  and 
convention  of  South  Carolina. 

No  one  intimately  acquainted  with  this  distin 
guished  man  can  speak  of  him  without  seeming,  to  a 
stranger,  to  run  into  extravagance.  With  the  purest 
morals,  and  a  wife  worthy  to  glide  "  double,  swan  and 
shadow,"  down  the  stream  of  life  with  him — they  were 
"  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  and  in  their  death 
[not  long]  divided." 

He,  so  highly  gifted  in  genius  and  fancy ;  highly 
accomplished  as  a  scholar,  a  gentleman,  and  a  states 
man  ;  with  powers  of  oratory  to  enrapture  the  multi 


238  Sketch  of  a  Noble  Character. 

tude,  and  edify  the  intelligent ; — with  a  soul  so  genial 
and  voice  so  sweet,  as  to  win  all  who  approached  him 
— young  and  .old,  men,  women,  and  children — was,  at 
this  unhappy  period,  given  up  to  nullification.  His 
good  genius,  •  however,  triumphed  in  the  end ;  for  he 
lived  long  enough  to  make  atonement  to  the  Union, 
and  to  die  (in  1860)  faithful  to  the  same  allegiance 
that  distinguished  his  grandfather,  Campbell,  of  King's 
Mountain,  and  also  his  immediate  parent,  General 
Frank  Preston,  long  a  member  of  Congress  from  South 
western  Virginia. 

Letter  from    Major- General  Seott  to  the   Honorable 
Lewis  Cass,  Secretary  at  War. 

[Extract.] 

"HEADQUARTERS,  EASTERN  DEPARTMENT,) 
SAVANNAH,  December  15,  1832.        \ 

"Sra: 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  to  address  you  once  from 
this  place  since  my  return  from  Augusta.  The  letter 
bore  date  the  10th  or  llth  instant.  In  it  I  stated  that 
I  had  not  the  time  to  retain  a  copy. 

"  I  now  take  the  liberty  to  enclose  a  copy  of  a  pri 
vate  letter  which  I  addressed  to  William  C.*  Preston, 


Official  and  Semi-Official  Correspondence.     239 

Esq.,  a  leading  member  of  the  South  Carolina  Legis 
lature,  and  a  nullifier.  I  do  this,  because  letters  from 
me  to  individuals  of  that  party  should  be  seen  by  the 
Government,  and  because  this  letter  contains  the  senti 
ments  and  topics  which  I  always  urge  in  conversation 
with  nullifiers. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  I  speak  of  the  arrival  of  troops 
in  the  harbor  of  Charleston.  I  did  this  because  I  knew 
the  movement  of  the  troops  was,  or  would  be  soon 
known,  and  because  I  wish  to  prevent  the  idea  of 
offensive  operations  (invasion.)  Such  an  idea  might 
precipitate  the  State  authorities  into  some  act  of  open 
hostility,  which  would  not  fail  to  be  followed  by  a 
civil  war,  at  least  among  her  own  citizens." 

SAVANNAH,  December  14,  1832. 

MY  DEAK  SIR  : 

You  have  an  excellent  memory  to  remind  me,  after 
so  long  an  interval,  of  my  promise  to  visit  you  when 
next  on  a  tour  to  the  South,  and  I  owe  you  an  apology 
for  not  earlier  acknowledging  your  kind  letter.  It  was 
handed  to  me  just  as  I  was  about  to  leave  Charleston, 
and  I  have  been  since  too  constantly  in  motion  (to  Au 
gusta,  and  back  here)  to  allow  me  to  write. 


240  Subject  Continued. 

As  to  the  "  speculations "  at  Columbia  relative  to 
"  the  object  of  my  visit  to  Charleston  at  this  moment," 
I  can  only  say,  that  I  am  on  that  very  tour,  and  about 
the  very  time,  mentioned  by  me  when  I  last  had  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you.  On  what  evils  days  we  have 
fallen,  my  good  friend,  when  so  commonplace  an  event 
gives  rise  to  conjecture  or  speculation!  I  can  truly 
assure  you,  that  no  one  has  felt  more  wretched  than 
your  humble  correspondent,  since  an  unhappy  contro 
versy  began  to  assume  a  serious  aspect.  I  have  always 
entertained  a  high  admiration  for  the  history  and  char 
acter  of  South  Carolina,  and  accident  or  good  fortune, 
has  thrown  me  into  intimacy,  and  even  friendship,  with 
almost  every  leader  of  the  two  parties  which  now  divide 
and  agitate  the  State.  Would  to  God  they  were  again 
united,  as  during  the  late  war,  when  the  federalists  vied 
with  the  republicans  in  the  career  of  patriotism  and 
glory,  and  when  her  legislature  came  powerfully  to  the 
aid  of  the  Union.  Well,  the  majority  among  you  have 
taken  a  stand,  and  those  days  of  general  harmony  may 
never  return.  What  an  awful  position  for  South  Caro 
lina,  as  well  as  for  the  other  States ! 

I  cannot  follow  out  the  long,  dark  shades  of  the  pic 
ture  that  presents  itself  to  my  fears.  I  will  hope,  nev- 


Subject  Continued.  241 

ertheless,  for  the  best.  But  I  turn  my  eyes  back,  and, 
good  God !  what  do  I  behold  ?  Impatient  South  Caro 
lina  could  not  wait — she  has  taken  a  leap,  and  is  al 
ready  a  foreign  nation ;  and  the  great  names  of  Wash 
ington,  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and  Greene,  no  longer 
compatriot  with  yours,  or  those  of  Laurens,  Moultrie, 
Pinckney,  and  Marion  with  mine  1 

But  the  evil,  supposing  the  separation  to  have  been 
peaceable,  would  not  stop  there.  "When  one  member 
shall  withdraw,  the  whole  arch  of  the  Union  will  tum 
ble  in.  Out  of  the  broken  fragments  new  combinations 
will  arise.  We  should  probably  have,  instead  of  one, 
three  confederacies — a  Northern,  Southern,  and  West 
ern  reunion ;  and  transmontane  Virginia,  your  native 
country,  not  belonging  to  the  South,  but  torn  off  by 
the  general  West.  I  turn  with  horror  from  the  picture 
I  have  only  sketched.  I  have  said  it  is  dark ;  let  but 
one  drop  of  blood  be  spilt  upon  the  canvas,  and  it  be 
comes  "  one  red." 

"  Lands  intersected  by  a  narrow  frith 
Abhor  each  other.     Mountains  interposed 
Make  enemies  of  nations,  which  had  else, 
Like  kindred  drops,  been  mingled  into  one." 

But  you  and  my  other  South  Carolina  friends  have 
11 


242  Subject  Continued. 

taken  your  respective  sides,  and  I  must  follow  out 
mine. 

You  have  probably  heard  of  the  arrival  of  two  or 
three  companies  at  Charleston,  in  the  last  six  weeks, 
and  you  may  hear  that  as  many  more  have  followed. 
There  is  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  President's  mes 
sage  in  these  movements.  The  intention  simply  is, 
that  the  forts  in  the  harbor  shall  not  be  wrested  from 
the  United  States.  I  believe  it  is  not  apprehended 
that  the  State  authorities  contemplate  any  attack,  at 
least  in  the  present  condition  of  things,  on  these  posts ; 
but  I  know  it  has  been  feared  that  some  unauthorized 
multitude,  under  sudden  excitement,  might  attempt  to 
seize  them.  The  President,  I  presume,  will  stand  on 
the  defensive — thinking  it  better  to  discourage  than  to 
invite  an  attack — better  to  prevent  than  to  repel  one, 
in  order  to  gain  time  for  wisdom  and  moderation  to 
exert  themselves  in  the  capitol  at  Washington,  and  in 
the  state  house  at  Columbia. '  From  humane  consider 
ations  like  these,  the  posts  in  question  have  been,  and 
probably  will  be,  slightly  reenforced.  I  state  what  I 
partly  know,  and  what  I  partly  conjecture,  in  order 
that  the  case  which  I  see  is  provided  for  in  one  of  your 
bills,  may  not  be  supposed  to  have  actually  occurred. 


Subject  Continued.  243 

If  I  were  possessed  of  an  important  secret  of  the 
Government,  my  honor  certainly  would  not  allow  me  to 
disclose  it ;  but  there  is  in  the  foregoing  neither  secrecy 
nor  deception.  My  ruling  wish  is,  that  neither  party 
take  a  rash  step,  that  might  put  all  healing  powers  at 
defiance.  It  is,  doubtless,  merely  intended  to  hold  the 
posts  for  the  present.  A  few  companies  are  incapable 
of  effecting  any  further  object.  The  engineer,  also,  is 
going  on,  steadily,  but  slowly,  in  erecting  the  new  work 
(Fort  Sumter,  near  the  site  of  Fort  Johnson,  long  since 
projected  for  the  defence  of  the  harbor),  the  foundation 
of  which  is  but  just  laid.  When  finished,  some  years 
hence,  I  trust  it  may  long  be  regarded,  both  by  South 
Carolina  and  the  other  States,  as  one  of  the  bulwarks 
of  our  common  coast. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  letter  intended  to  be  con 
fidential,  nor  intended  for  the  public  press.  "When  I 
commenced  it,  I  only  designed  giving  utterance  to  pri 
vate  sentiments,  unconnected  with  public  events;  but 
my  heart  being  filled  with  grief  en  account  of  the  lat 
ter,  my  pen  has  run  a  little  into  that  distress.  Let  us, 
however,  hope  for  more  cheering  times.  Yet,  be  this 
as  it  may,  and  whether  our  duties  be  several  or  com 
mon,  I  shall  always  have  a  place  in  my  bosom  for  the 


244:  Crisis  Postponed. 

private  affections ;  and  that  I  may  ever  stand  in  the  old 
relation  to  you,  is  the  sincere  wish  of  your  friend, 

WINFIELD   SCOTT. 

The  time  of  danger  at  length  arrived,  and  so  had 
the  detachments  of  troops  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston, 
each  company  astonished  to  meet  the  others.  Scott 
borrowed  the  revenue  cutter  of  the  collector,  who  sup 
posed  him  to  be  bound  to  St.  Augustine — a  supposition 
neither  favored  nor  denied  by  Scott,  who  giving  orders 
not  to  take  letters,  sailed  from  Savannah  "for  parts 
unknown  "  to  all  but  himself.  Passing  the  Tybee  bar, 
the  astonished  master  of  the  cutter  was  told  to  stand 
for  the  harbor  of  Charleston.  The  next  day  Scott  was 
ensconced  in  Fort  Moultrie,  where,  for  several  days,  he 
lay,  without  the  knowledge  of  anybody  in  Charleston, 
save  his  friend — the  great  patriot  and  moral  hero — 
James  L.  Petigru  (now  lately  dead  of  a  broken  heart 
at  the  state  of  the  country),  and  a  few  other  friends  of 
the  Union — Poinsett,  -Huger,  etc.,  etc. 

Finding  that  at  a  general  meeting  in  the  city,  the 
leaders  of  the  quasi  rebellion  had  proposed  and  carried 
a  resolution  to  suspend  its  commencement,  in  order  to 
await  the  result  of  certain  compromise  measures  before 


Sails  for  New  York — Returns  to  Charleston.     245 

Congress — Scott  again,  to  avoid  the  irritation  the  threat 
ening  aspect  of  his  presence  might  occasion,  quietly  em 
barked  in  another  cutter  for  the  North,  via  Wilmington, 
North  Carolina — intending  to  return  before  the  expira 
tion  of  the  quasi  armistice.  Colonel  Bankhead,  Scott's 
chosen  second  in  command — a  manly,  generous  soldier, 
was  left  to  improve,  in  the  mean  time,  the  discipline  of 
the  troops  and  the  strength  of  the  forts. 

In  the  night,  late  in  January,  Scott  reembarked  in 
the  lower  harbor  of  New  York  for  Charleston — his  de 
parture  unknown  in  the  city,  and  also  his  name  to  the 
master  and  owners  of  the  packet.  That  same  day,  he 
despatched  an  article  to  his  friend,  General  Broadnax, 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Virginia  Legislature, 
against  both  nullification  and  secession,  containing 
politico-military  views  and  arguments  not  likely  to 
occur  to  the  minds  of  many  civilians,  and  which,  being 
published  in  the  newspapers  at  the  time  and  place,  had 
a  considerable  effect  in  preventing  Virginia  from  plung 
ing  into  the  South  Carolina  vortex,  to  which  her  State 
Right  doctrines  made  her  but  too  prone.  She  was  then 
saved ;  but,  at  the  second  temptation  (in  1861)  lost  in 
rebellion ! 

"The  mother  of  States,"  late  in   January,  1833, 


246     Consultations — Support  of  Civil  Authorities. 

passed  resolutions  recommending  that  the  offensive 
ordinance  of  South  Carolina  be  repealed,  and  requesting 
Congress  to  mitigate  the  tariff.  The  third  step,  taken 
at  the  same  time,  was  to  appoint  a  commissioner  of  per 
suasion  and  peace  to  her  wayward  sister — perhaps,  not 
entirely  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  supreme  law 
of  the  Union  that  prohibits  "  any  agreement  or  com 
pact"  between  States.  The  person  selected  for  that 
duty  was  the  Honorable  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  al 
ready  mentioned  in  these  memoirs  as  Scott's  earliest 
and  longest-continued  friend — soon  after  a  distinguished 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  and  distinguished  in  every 
previous  walk  of  his  life  for  virtue,  talent,  and  useful 
ness — whose  motto  always  was :  Right  ends,  pursued 
~by  means  as  good  as  the  ends.  Shaking  hands  in 
Charleston,  the  two  friends  exclaimed  together :  How 
strange  our  meeting  here,  and  how  strange  the  occasion  ! 
In  every  case  where  there  was  a  liability  of  collision 
between  the  Federal  and  State  authorities,  Scott  con 
sulted  with  the  District  Attorney,  Gilchrist,  with  Peti- 
gru,  etc.,  always  holding  himself  ready  to  support  the 
marshal  by  force.  Happily  no  collision  fell  out  be 
tween  the  parties.  But  the  duties  of  Scott  were  most 
critical,  requiring  the  nicest  observance  and  delicacy  of 


Basis  of  Scott's  Policy.  247 

management,  to  avoid  the  shedding  of  the  first  drop  of 
blood ;  for  failing  in  this,  the  two  home  parties,  nearly 
of  equal  numbers,  and  always  ready  for  blows,  would 
instantly  have  rushed  into  the  affray,  and  have  filled 
the  State  with  the  sound  of  hostile  arms.  Nor  could 
such  calamity  have  been  pent  up  within  her  borders ; 
but  must  have  raged  and  spread  like  the  present  dire 
rebellion. 

Perhaps  the  peace  observances  alluded  to,  though 
great  in  the  aggregate,  were,  separately,  too  small  in 
detail  for  historical  record ;  yet  nothing  that  tended  to 
prevent  a  civil  war  ought,  by  patriots,  to  be  regarded 
as  trivial.  Besides,  the  record  may  be  valuable  to 
future  commanders  finding  themselves  in  similar  cir 
cumstances.  The  basis  of  Scott's  policy  was  humility 
and  forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  United  States' 
troops,  officers,  and  men.  The  crews  of  the  rowboats, 
which  consisted  of  men  selected  on  account  of  their  in 
telligence  and  sobriety — for  marketing  purposes,  visit 
ing  the  post  office,  and  conveying  officers  up  and  down 
between  the  fort  and  the  city — were  made  to  compre 
hend  and  support  that  policy.  The  general,  sometimes 
a  passenger  himself,  took  that  instruction  into  hand. 
He  said  to  the  crews,  and  as  often  as  practicable  to 


248  Humility  and  Forbearance. 

officers  and  others  of  the  garrison :  "  These  nullifiers," 
all  known  by  their  palmetto  cockades,  "  have,  no  doubt, 
become  exceedingly  wrong-headed,  and  are  in  the  road 
to  treason ;  but  still  they  are  our  countrymen,  and  may 
be  saved  from  that  great  crime  by  respect  and  kindness 
on  our  part.  We  must  keep  our  bosoms  open  to  re 
ceive  them  back  as  brothers  in  the  Union.  If  we  suc 
ceed  by  such  means  in  this  endeavor,  it  will  be  a  great 
moral  triumph,  worth  much  more  to  our  country  than 
crushing  victories  in  the  field.  In  walking  the  streets 
let  us  give  place  to  all  citizens.  Bad  words  and  even 
casting  mud  upon  us,  can  do  no  harm.  "We  shall  show 
our  courage  by  quietly  passing  along.  I  rather  think 
that  I  should  disregard  even  a  few  brickbats,  and  re 
member,  my  gallant  fellows,  that  you  are  no  letter  than 
your  old  commander!  But  should  those  misguided 
men  be  driven  to  the  field  by  our  neglect  or  their  own 
inherent  madness; — should  they  drop  the  name  of 
Americans,  and  under  the  wing  of  some  foreign  power 
make  war  upon  us,  then,  in  tears  and  blood  we  will 
crush  them ! !  "  Such  remarks  often  repeated,  and  fall 
ing  from  an  officer  of  high  rank,  needed,  for  propagation 
among  troops,  no  printing  press.  They  ran  through 
mouths  and  ears  of  all  with  wonderful  rapidity. 


Courtesies  to  Nullifiers.  249 

Hundreds  of  citizens,  respectable  men,  decorated 
with  the  palmetto,  visited  the  fort  in  the  course  of 
every  week.  Scott,  and  many  of  his  intelligent  officers, 
made  it  a  point  to  converse  freely  with  those  citizens, 
and  to  show  to  some  of  the  seniors  and  most  intelligent, 
the  interior  of  the  defensive  works — always  taking  care 
to  remark  :  "  You  see  we  have  made  ourselves  as  strong 
as  possible,  and  wish  it  to  be  known  to  our  neighboring 
countrymen ;  because  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  in  the  un 
happy  excitement  prevailing,  some  unauthorized  multi 
tude,  by  a  sudden  impulse,  may  rush  upon  us,  in  ignor 
ance,  and  to  their  certain  destruction."  Some  of  the 
graver  of  those  visitors  were,  on  many  occasions,  even 
invited  by  the  general  to  dine  at  the  officers'  mess,  and 
treated  writh  the  highest  courtesy. 

At  a  public  meeting  of  nullifiers — there  was  more 
than  one  a  week — to  keep  up  excitement — Governor 
Hamilton  in  a  tirade  told  the  multitude  that,  to  try 
the  question  whether  the  Federal  authorities  would 
dare  to  stop,  at  the  fort,  dutiable  articles  till  satisfac 
tion  of  all  tariff  demands,  he  had  ordered  some  boxes 
of  sugar  from  the  Havana,  and  "  my  friends,"  he 
added,  with  great  applause,  "  if  Uncle  Sam  put  his 
robber  hand  on  the  boxes,  I  Jcnow  yoitll  go  the  death 
11* 


250  Fi/re  in  Charleston. 

with  me  for  the  sugar  !  "  The  ship  soon  arrived,  the 
sugar  was  quietly  taken  out,  locked  up  in  the  fort,  and 
kept  a  secret  from  everybody  in  Charleston,  except  the 
importer ;  because,  if  known,  consistency  in  folly  might 
have  caused  an  attempt  to  execute  the  threat. 

While  all  good  patriots  were  fearful  of  folly  and 
madness  on  one  side,  and  with  aching  eyes  turned  to 
Congress  on  the  other ; — that  is,  while  all  were  in  the 
agony  of  suspense — a  great  calamity  fell  upon  Charles 
ton,  which  Scott  instantly  sought  to  turn  to  the  inter 
ests  of  peace.  At  nightfall,  it  was  seen  at  the  fort  that 
a  fire  was  raging  in  the  city,  which,  aided  by  a  fresh 
breeze,  was  likely  to  reduce  everything  combustible  to 
ashes.  The  drums  beat  the  long-roll,  the  garrison 
leaped  from  an  unfinished  supper,  and,  in  a  moment, 
all  were  under  arms.  Scott  in  his  usual  tone  stated 
the  reason  for  the  call ; — made  a  short  appeal  to  the 
sympathies  of  the  soldiers,  and  asked  for  volunteers  to 
aid  in  stopping  the  fire.  All  stepped  forward.  He 
directed  the  company  officers  to  select  some  three  hun 
dred  men,  and  prepare  the  boats.  In  the  mean  time 
he  despatched  Major  Heileman,  an  excellent  officer  and 
man,  who,  from  long  service  in  the  harbor  had  made 
himself  a  favorite  with  everybody  in  the  city — to  report 


Noble  Conduct  of  Soldiers  and  Sailors. 

to  the  Intendant  (mayor)  that  he  would  soon  be  fol 
lowed  by  detachments  of  men  anxious  to  help  their 
friends  in  the  existing  calamity.  He  was  told  to  say 
that  the  troops  would  arrive  without  arms,  and  take 
care  not  to  allow  the  crabbed  Intendant  time  to  retort : 
"  D — n  General  Scott  and  his  arms  !  Pin  not  afraid 
of  them;"  but  to  add,  in  his  first  breath:  "This  is 
said  in  order  that  should  you  set  the  soldiers  to  guard 
banks  and  property  in  the  streets,  you  may  see  the 
necessity  of  lending  them  a  few  stands  of  muskefcs.'* 
The  gallant  Major  Ringgold  (mortally  wounded  under 
General  Taylor  on  this  side  of  the  Rio  Grande)  at  the 
instant  came  up  with  some  eighty  lusty  fellows,  ready 
for  the  good  work.  He  reported  himself  to  the  sulky 
Intendant,  unworthy  of  the  city  and  his  office — who 
made  no  reply  to  either  of  those  officers.  Just  then,  a 
citizen  called  to  Einggold,  "  Here,  Major,  for  God's 
sake  save  my  sugar  refinery,  for  the  adjoining  house 
has  caught  the  flames  !  "  Einggold  turning  to  his  men 
said :  "  Do  you  hear  that  my  lads  /  we'll  go  the  '  death 
for  tlie  sugar  ! ' " — a  most  happy  quotation  from  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton,  that  caused  everybody  to  smile  but 
the  Intendant,  who  evidently  considered  the  kind  pres 
ence  of  the  soldiers  a  most  untoward  event  to  the  cause 


252  Good  Effect— Courtesy  to  Scott. 

of  nullification.  Ringgold's  party  soon  tore  down  the 
house  next  to  the  refinery,  and  mainly  by  the  aid  of 
the  other  troops  and  a  body  of  United  States'  sailors, 
the  devouring  element  was  stayed  everywhere. 

Scott  remained  up  to  welcome  and  applaud  his 
noble  detachments.  The  good  citizens,  melting  with 
gratitude,  had  been  liberal  in  the  offer  of  bread,  cheese, 
and  cider — the  soldiers  declining  ardent  spirits,  and  all, 
sober  and  happy,  were  in  their  own  beds  by  one  o'clock 
the  same  night. 

Mr.  Leigh,  much  with  the  nullifiers,  to  whom  he 
had  been  commissioned,  wrote  to  Scott  the  next  day, 
that  "  a  great  good  had  been  effected.  It  works  pow- 
fully." 

One  other  incident  occurred  during  this  same  state 
of  lingering  agony  that  seems  entitled  to  come  upon 
this  record.  The  nullifiers,  though  they  regarded  Scott 
askance,  and  with  feelings  bordering  on  honest,  but 
mistaken  hatred,  had  not  lost  all  the  brightness  of  their 
old  chivalry,  and  hence,  in  the  Jockey  Club,  united 
with  the  Union  members  in  extending  to  Scott  an  in 
vitation  to  attend  the  approaching  races — a  sort  of 
annual  jubilee,  which  always  brought  to  Charleston, 
in  February,  most  of  the  numerous  families  of  wealth, 


JHeeting  of  the  Jockey  Club.  253 

refinement,  and  fashion  in  the  State.  The  club,  more 
over,  did  him  the  honor  to  appoint  a  man  of  mark  as 
his  cicerone  for  the  occasion,  and  in  case  of  need,  a 
ready,  very  sufficient  protector.  This  true  chevalier 
was  the  Ex  Governor  Wilson,  a  staunch  nullifier,  for 
merly  a  powerful  editor  of  a  newspaper ; — a  recent 
translator  of  certain  Greek  fragments  into  elegant 
English  poetry ; — in  early  life,  almost  a  professed  duel 
list,  but  of  late  the  common  pacificator  in  private  quar 
rels; — not  yet  old,  but  subdued  in  temper,  probably 
more  by  remorse  than  age,  and  now  benignant  in 
smiles  and  sentiments. 

The  two,  Wilson  and  Scott,  had  hardly  reached  the 
Stranger's  Stand,  before  Mr.  Leigh,  from  the  Governor's 
Stand,  came  almost  breathless  to  Scott :  "  Why,"  he 
said,  "  this  rash  step  you  are  about  to  take  —  a  new 
fort  at  this  critical  moment,  when  the  friends  of  peace 
are  just  beginning  to  hope  it  possible  to  avoid  a  civil 
war?"  "My  good  friend,  I  don't  comprehend  you," 
replied  Scott.  "  Oh,  there  is  no  use  in  mystery  on  the 
subject.  Here's  a  Washington  paper  (received  in  ad 
vance  of  the  mail)  containing  a  letter  to  you  from  the 
War  Department,  telling  you  to  cause  Stono  Inlet  to 
be  examined,  with  a  view  to  a  fort  at  that  point." 


254:  Alarm  Excited  and  Quieted. 

"Now  it  was  true  Scott  had,  some  time  before,  received 
such  letter,  but  was  astonished  to  find  it  had  been  pub 
lished.  It  was  certainly,  under  the  circumstances,  a 
most  sinister  publication — quite  athwart  Scott's  peace 
policy  and  measures;  for  if  a  spade  had  been,  about 
that  time,  put  into  the  ground  for  a  new  work  beyond 
Sullivan's  Island,  civil  war  would  have  been  inaugu 
rated  on  the  spot.  Happily  Scott  was  enabled  to  say, 
with  truth,  that  he  had  absolutely  no  intention  of  send 
ing  an  officer  or  a  man  to  that  point,  and  that  to  occu 
py  it  by  a  fort  or  'troops  was  entirely  outside  of  his 
military  views  and  purposes.  Mr.  Leigh  and  Governor 
Wilson  hastened  to  communicate  this  assurance  to  the 
high  officials  and  others  on  the  ground,  all  in  a  state 
of  morbid  excitement,  breathing  defiance  and  war. 

Considering  the  oral  and  written  instructions  Scott 
had  before  received  from  the  President  and  Secretary 
of  War,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  necessity  for  this 
missile.  Through  some  babbler  an  inkling  of  the  order 
reached  the  ears  of  a  member  of  the  House  of  Eepre- 
sentatives,  when,  in  a  spirit  of  hostility,  it  was  called  for 
and  thrown  out,  as  a  firebrand  among  more  than  a 
million  of  States'  Rights  men  south  of  the  Potomac 
ready  for  explosion. 


Peace  Restored.  255 

Awhile  later  Congress  passed  the  Compromise  Act ; 
the  South  Carolina  Convention  reconvened  and  rescind 
ed  the  nullification  ordinance,  when  Leigh  and  Scott 
returned  North  in  a  state  of  quiet  satisfaction. 

Scott  called  at  the  President's  mansion.  Vice- 
President  Yan  Buren,  a  temporary  guest,  came  down 
to  receive  him,  and  told  the  visitor  that  he  had  read 
all  his  reports,  official  and  semi-official,  from  the  South, 
and  kindly  spoke  of  them  with  emphatic  approbation. 
The  President  himself  soon  followed  and  touched  lightly 
the  same  subject — deigning  a  few  terms  of  measured 
praise. 

This  extreme  temperance  of  phrase  on  a  great  occa 
sion  slightly  awakened  Scott's  suspicion  that  the  recon 
ciliation  between  the  parties  in  1823,  was,  with  General 
Jackson,  but  external ;  although  the  habit  of  his,  Scott's 
mind,  was  of  the  opposite  character — he,  always,  ac 
cepting  as  sound  maxims,  that  "  more  men  are  duped 
by  suspicion  than  by  confidence,"  *  and  that — "  Evils 
may  be  courted,  may  be  woo'd  and  won  by  distrust."  f 
But  more  of  the  particular  suspicion  in  the  sequel. 

Mr.  Leigh,  who  died  in  1849,  in  a  published  letter, 
addressed  to  Edward  D.  Mansfield,  Esq.,  author  of 

*  Le  Cardinal  de  Retz,  Liv.  II.  f  Proverbial  Philosophy. 


256  Testimony  of  Mr.  Leigh. 

Scott's  biography,  and  many  works  of  great  scientific 
and  literary  merit,  said :  "  I  was  in  Charleston  when 
Scott  arrived  and  assumed  command  [his  last  visit, 
about  the  first  of  February — by  sea,  from  New  York], 
which  he  did  without  any  parade  or  fuss.  No  one  who 
had  an  opportunity  of  observing  on  the  spot  the  excite 
ment  that  existed  can  have  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  delicacy  of  the  trust.  General  Scott  had  a  large 
acquaintance  with  the  people  of  Charleston.  He  was 
their  friend ;  but  his  situation  was  such  that  many,  the 
great  majority  of  them,  looked  upon  him  as  a  public 
enemy.  *****  He  thought,  as  I  thought, 
that  the  first  drop  of  blood  shed  in  civil  war,  between 
the  United  States  and  one  of  the  States,  would  prove 
an  immedicable  wound,  which  would  end  in  a  change 
of  our  institutions.  He  was  resolved,  if  possible,  to 
prevent  a  resort  to  arms,  and  nothing  could  have  been 
more  judicious  than  his  conduct.  Far  from  being 
prone  to  take  offence,  he  kept  his  temper  under  the 
strictest  guard,  and  was  most  careful  to  avoid  giving 
occasion  for  offence ;  yet  he  held  himself  ready  to  act, 
if  it  should  become  necessary,  and  he  let  that  be  dis 
tinctly  understood.  He  sought  the  society  of  the  lead 
ing  milliners  [old  friends],  and  was  in  their  society  as 


Subject  Continued.  257 

much  as  they  would  let  him  be,  but  he  took  care  never 
to  say  a  word  to  them  on  the  subject  of  political  differ 
ences  ;  he  treated  them  as  a  friend.  From  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end  his  conduct  was  as  conciliatory  as  it 
was  firm  and  sincere,  evincing  that  he  knew  his  duty 
and  was  resolved  to  perform  it,  and  yet  that  his  prin 
cipal  object  and  purpose  was  peace.  He  was  perfectly 
successful,  when  the  least  imprudence  might  have  re 
sulted  in  a  serious  collision." 


CHAPTEE    XX. 


TACTICS GENERAL  REGULATIONS FLORIDA  WAR CREEK 

WAR — JACKSON'S  WAR  UPON  SCOTT — COURT  OF  INQUIRY. 


IN  1834r-'5  the  autobiographer  translated  and  adapt 
ed  to  the  particular  organization  of  the  United  States' 
Infantry,  unencumbered  with  a  board,  the  new  French 
Tactics  on  the  old  basis.  His  General  Regulations  for 
the  army,  or  Military  Institutes,  had,  in  a  new  impres 
sion  years  before,  dropping  his  name,  been  blurred, 
mutilated,  and  spoiled  under  high  military  authority. 
This,  his  last  edition  of  tactics,  was  soon,  under  the 
same  protection,  abridged  and  emasculated  down  to 
utter  uselessness,  by  the  present  adjutant-general  of  the 
Confederate  army,  without  the  knowledge  of  Scott,  and 


Scotfs  Tactics  Superseded.  259 

next  pirated,  in  great  part,  under  the  immediate  pro 
tection  of  Mr.  Secretary  Jefferson  Davis,  by  one  of  his 
pets,  now  a  division  commander  in  the  Confederate 
army,  aided  by  another  pet  of  the  same  Mr.  Davis,  a 
major-general  of  the  United  States'  volunteers,  who, 
recently,  following  up  the  old  hostility  of  that  clique, 
has  entirely  superseded  Scott's  tactics,  with  the  consent 
of  a  loyal  Secretary  of  War,  and  two  loyal  regular  gen 
erals,  all  three  the  professed  friends  of  Scott,  but  who 
did  not  chance  to  know  anything  of  the  particular  his 
tory  or  the  merits  of  the  case,  and  through  Scott's  per 
sonal  neglect  of  his  own  fame  and  interests.  With  a 
single  added  remark,  the  result  of  an  old  experience, 
the  autobiographer  will  dismiss  this  subject  for  ever : — 
It  is  extremely  perilous  to  change  systems  of  tactics  in 
an  army  in  the  midst  of  a  war,  and  highly  inconvenient 
even-  at  the  beginning  of  one. 

A  slight  incident  occurred  about  this  time,  which, 
though  perhaps  below  the  dignity  of  history,  may  be 
tolerated  in  personal  memoirs,  which  are  usually  of  a 
more  anecdotal  character,  and  written  with  greater 
freedom  and  ease. 

Scott  being  on  a  short  visit  to  Washington,  had  the 
honor  to  be  invited  to  dine  with  President  Jackson, 


260  Jackson's  Hostility. 

and  was  further  complimented  by  being  assigned  to 
conduct  an  agreeable  lady,  to  him  a  stranger,  to  the 
table,  where  he  was  desired  to  place  her  between  the 
President  and  himself.  Towards  the  end  of  the  sitting 
General  Jackson  said  to  the  fair  lady,  in  a  tone  of 
labored  pleasantry,  that  is,  with  ill-disguised  bitterness : 
"I  see  you  are  pleased  with  the  attentions  of  your 
neighbor.  Do  you  know  that  he  has  condemned  all 

the  measures  of  my  administration  ? "     Mrs. was 

perfectly  shocked.  Scott  promptly  replied  :  "  Mr. 
President,  you  are  in  part  mistaken.  I  thought  highly 
of  your  proclamation  against  nullifiers,  and  yesterday, 
in  the  Senate,  I  was  equally  pleased  with  your  special 
message  on  the  French  Indemnity  question,  which  I 
heard  read."  "  That's  candid ! "  retorted  the  Presi 
dent.  "  He  thinks  well  of  two — l)ut  two  !  of  my  meas 
ures."  The  lady  evidently  regarded  Scott,  like  the  old 
general,  as  a  bad  subject  of  the  realm.  The  most  un 
suspicious  nature  might  now  plainly  see.  that  the  bolt 
was  forged,  and  would  in  due  time  be  launched. 

The  Seminole  war,  which  commenced  by  the  sur 
prise  and  massacre  of  Major  Dade,  and  about  one  hun 
dred  and  ten  men,  December  28,  1835,  may  from  its 
cost  (about  twenty  millions)  and  duration  (seven  years) 


Florida  War.  261 

be  called  a  great  war.  Brigadier-General  Clinch,  near 
est  at  hand,  advanced  on  the  Indians,  and  at  the  head 
of  a  small  force  won  the  battle  of  Withlacoochee. 
Major-General  Gaines  hastily  collected,  at  New  Or 
leans,  a  body  of  volunteers  and  some  companies  of 
regulars,  and  soon  reached  Florida.  He  marched  past 
the  scene  of  the  massacre,  buried  the  dead,  and  pro 
ceeded  towards  Fort  Drane  for  supplies.  His  detach 
ment,  attacked  by  the  Seminoles  on  the  Withlacoochee, 
intrenched  themselves,  and  would  probably  have 
shared  the  fate  of  Dade's  party,  but  for  a  prompt  un- 
dictated  movement  by  Brigadier-General  Clinch,  com 
manding  at  Fort  Drane — :a  man  of  singular  excellence 
— whose  sentiments  had  the  unvarying  truth  of  in 
stincts,  and  whose  common  sense  always  rose  to  the 
height  of  the  occasion. 

Clinch  liberated  the  beleaguered  Gaines,  who  held  a 
parley  with  the  Indians,  and  abandoning  the  great  and 
single  object  of  the  Government — their  emigration, 
according  to  the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing — he  an 
nulled  that  treaty,  and  told  them  if  they  would  remain 
quiet,  they  might  continue  to  occupy  the  whole  coun 
try  south  and  east  of  that  river !  This  the  superannu 
ated  general  preposterously  called  dictating  a  peace  to 


262  Scottfs  Campaign  in  Florida. 

the  Indians!  and  went  off  swiftly  to  New  Orleans, 
rejoicing !  Now  as  the  conceit  made  one  man  happy, 
it  would  have  been  well  enough;  but  that  the  staff 
officers  at  that  city,  learning  that  the  war  had  been 
happily  finished  by  a  single  coup  de  maitfre,  failed  to 
send  to  Tampa  Bay  the  supplies  for  men  and  horses 
that  Scott,  the  successor  of  Gaines,  had  ordered  thither ! 
Scott's  embarrassment  —  throwing  out  the  ludicrous 
cause  thereof,  was  serious  and  irremediable. 

His  advance  on  Tampa  Bay  in  two  columns,  by 
different  routes^one  commanded  by  General  Clinch, 
with  whom  Scott  marched,  and  the  other  by  Colonel 
Linsay,  was  unmarked  by  a  single  event  of  interest, 
except  that  Clinch's  passage  of  the  Withlacoochee  was 
slightly  opposed  by  the  enemy.  The  whole  expedition 
returned  (again  by  several  routes)  to  the  northeast  of 
Florida  for  these  reasons :  1,  The  failure  of  supplies, 
already  noticed,  and  2,  The  term  of  service  of  the 
troops,  except  that  of  a  handful  of  regulars,  was  near 
its  expiration. 

Scott  was  next  ordered  to  the  Chattahoochee  River. 
The  Creek  Indians  (much  connected  with  the  Semi- 
noles),  being  also  under  treaty  stipulations  to  leave 
Alabama  and  Georgia  for  the  far  "West,  had  begun  to 


Creek  Wwr.  263 

show  symptoms  of  resistance.  He  proceeded  to  Colum 
bus  on  that  river,  late  in  May,  with  the  Florida  fever 
upon  him.  Here  he  soon  had  collected  a  sufficient 
body  of  Georgian  volunteers ;  but  they  were  without 
arms  and  ammunition.  These  supplies  had  been 
promptly  ordered,  principally  from  the  arsenal  at  Au 
gusta.  There  was  a  great  delay  in  their  arrival.  In 
the  mean  time  Major-General  Jesup,  second  in  com 
mand,  at  the  head  of  the  Alabama  volunteers,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  hostile  Indians,  without  waiting 
for  the  joint  action  prescribed  by  Scott — an  advance 
from  all  points  at  once  against  the  enemy,  by  which 
all  would  have  been  hemmed  in  and  captured — flushed 
and  scattered  the  main  body  of  the  Creeks  with  but 
small  results.  Jesup,  who  was  well  aware  of  Scott's 
bad  standing  with  the  President,  and  to  indemnify 
himself  for  the  complaints  of  his  senior  in  an  unhappy 
moment — a  short  forgetfulness  of  old  feelings  and  ob 
ligations — addressed  a  private  letter  to  the  editor  of 
the  official  paper  at  Washington,  denouncing  Scott's 
dilatoriness  against  the  Creeks,  and  likening  it  to  his 
want  of  energy  in  the  Florida  war. 

The  letter  was  laid  before  the  President,  who,  too 
happy  that  the  moment  had  at  length  arrived  to  launch 


264     Jesup  Supersedes  Scott — Scott  "before  a  Court. 

the  bolt  so  long  held  in  readiness,  ordered — Let  Jesup 
be  placed  in  command,  and  Scott  before  a  Court!  But 
before  meeting  the  thunderer  full  face  to  face,  it  will 
be  best  to  follow  up  the  interminable  Seminole  war. 

In  Florida,  Jesup  succeeded  Scott,  who,  with  small 
numbers  and  inadequate  supplies,  had  less  than  thirty 
days  for  operations.  On  Jesup,  now  the  double  pet 
of  the  President,  who  commanded  in  Florida  some 
eighteen  or  twenty  months,  and  had  lavished  upon 
him  men,  means  of  transportation,  and  supplies  of 
every  other  kind  beyond  anything  ever  known  before 
in  war,  everything  depended, — with  full  power  to  buy 
up  all  the  Indians  he  could  not  capture.  Success  on 
any  terms  and  by  any  means — it  being  doubly  im 
portant  to  build  up  the  new  favorite,  as  that  could 
not  fail  to  give  consummation  to  the  blows  intend 
ed  for  Scott.  But  Jesup,  with  all  those  great  aids, 
signally  failed,  when,  smitten  with  remorse,  he  retract 
ed  his  charge  of  dilatoriness,  etc.  The  amende  lacked 
a  little  in  fulness,  but  Scott,  in  time,  forgave. 

Brigadier-General  Taylor,  who  won  the  battle  of 
Okechobee,  succeeded  Jesup,  and  was,  in  time,  suc 
ceeded  by  Brigadier-General  Armistead;  and,  finally, 
in  1842,  towards  the  end  of  the  seventh  year  of  the 


Jackson — Moral  Heroism.  265 

war,  Brigadier-General  Worth  patched  up  a  sort  of 
treaty  or  agreement  with  those  Indians,  under  which 
the  bands  of  Sam  Jones  and  Bowlegs  were  allowed  to 
remain  and  to  possess  a  large  tract  of  their  original 
country. 

Scott,  who  had  failed  to  do  that  in  less  than  thirty 
days,  which,  pets  and  others  did  not  accomplish  in 
more  than  six  years,  was  now  to  meet  before  a  court 
the  unbroken  power  and  popularity  of  the  most  re 
markable  man  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  of  the  19th 
century. 

Establishing  himself  in  Tennessee,  after  attaining 
manhood,  in  a  region  where  civilization  was  but  in 
the  dawn,  Andrew  Jackson  had  the  heroic  characteris 
tics  suited  to  that  condition.  In  the  frequent  strifes 
and  conflicts  among  the  settlers,  his  neighbors,  he 
himself  at  that  period  also  much  of  a  bully,  with  a 
born  talent  for  command,  jumped  in  between  the  hos 
tile  parties,  and  at  once,  by  words,  silenced  the  feud, 
or  became  the  partisan  of  one  side  and  soon  subdued 
the  other.  Elevated  to  the  bench,  though  unlearned 
in  the  law,  he  knew  well  how  to  enforce  order.  A 
bully,  in  open  court,  knocked  down  an  opponent. 
Said  the  judge :  "  Sheriff,  seize  that  man,  and  place 
12 


266  Establishes  Law  and  Order. 

him  at  the  bar  to  receive  judgment  for  his  contempt 
of  the  court."  The  sheriff  soon  reported :  "  May  it 
please  your  honor,  the  offender  is  armed  and  won't  let 
me  seize  him."  "  Yery  well,"  the  judge  replied — 
"  Summon  the  posse  !  "  After  a  time,  the  sheriff  again 
reported  :  "  Sir,  the  man  is  on  horseback,  at  the  door ; 
I  have  summoned  everybody,  and  nobody  dares  to 
touch  him."  "  Summon  me,  sir !  "  was  the  next  order. 
The  posse  of  one  (the  judge)  soon  wounded  and  un 
horsed  the  offender,  helped  to  take  him  up  bodily, 
placed  him  at  the  bar,  reascended  the  bench  and  pro 
nounced  the  merited  sentence.  This  certainly  was  an 
effective  way  to  civilize  a  rude,  wild  people — to  break 
their  necks  to  the  necessary  yoke  of  the  law. 

His  Indian  wars  were  well  enough.  But,  at  New 
Orleans,  with  fearful  odds  of  British  troops  against 
him,  he  despaired  not  of  success  ;  poured  his  own  great 
spirit  into  all  around  him  ;  struck  the  advancing 
enemy  a  timely  blow  in  the  night  of  December  the 
23d,  that  paralyzed  him  for  the  next  sixteen  days — a 
great  gain — and  then,  owing  in  part  to  the  stupidity 
of  attacking  strong  intrenchments  by  daylight,  won 
the  crowning  victory  of  the  war. 

In  short,  such  was  his  antithetical  character  that 


Aberrations  in  Florida  and  New  Orleans.     267 

the  future  philosophic  historian  will  be  forced  to  say — 
"  "We  scarcely  can  praise  it  or  blame  it  too  much ; " 
for,  without  the  charm  of  romance  to  distemper  the 
mind,  he  took  possession  of  a  man's  wife  (whom  he 
made  his  own)  and  shot  another  man  in  a  duel,  leisure 
ly  and  with  great  deliberation,  after  the  latter  had  lost 
his  fire.  He  invaded  Spanish  Florida,  and  took  Pen- 
sacola  and  St.  Marks,  without  a  declaration  of  war  by 
Congress,  or  instructions  from  the  President,  as  well  as 
without  necessity ;  and  then,  at  the  door  of  the  Senate, 
within  hearing  of  many  of  its  members,  threatened,  on 
their  adjournment,  to  cut  off  the  ears  of  two  principal 
committee  men  that  had  condemned  his  conduct  toward 
a  nation  with  whom  the  United  States  were  at  peace. 

And  prior  to  this  period,  at  New  Orleans,  flushed 
with  the  great  victory  of  January  the  8th,  and  knowing 
to  a  certainty,  though  not  officially,  that  a  treaty  of 
peace  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
had  been  signed  at  Ghent,  he  imprisoned  a  Federal 
judge  for  issuing  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  favor  of 
one  of  his  (Jackson's)  civil  prisoners  without  the  least 
color  of  the  tyrant's  plea — necessity.  Yet  this  eminent 
man,  of  a  double  nature,  was  only  immoral  in  the 
specified  instances.  In  all  else  he  was  mild,  and  tern- 


268  Idolized  for  Merits  and  Defects. 

perate — except  when  in  passion — and  even  a  professor 
of  religion,  though  he  entirely  ignored  the  Christian 
injunction,  "  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  on  your  wrath." 

It  may  well  be  maintained  that  for  his  popularity 
with  the  multitude,  he  owed  fully  as  much  to  his  de 
merits  as  to  his  virtues  and  splendid  services.  Every 
where  in  the  deep  columns  of  his  supporters  the  loud 
cry  could  be  heard  :  Washington  was  great,  ~but  Jack 
son  is  greater  ! — just  as  faithful  Mussulmans  shout  at 
every  turn  :  God  is  great  and  Mahomet  is  his  prophet ! 
The  enthusiasm  in  behalf  of  the  American  also  partook 
largely  of  allegiance — bigoted  idolatry ;  and  it  may  be 
placed  to  his  credit — to  the  bright  face  of  his  duality — 
that  he  did  not  profit  by  the  circumstances,  and  in 
trench  himself  for  life  in  the  Presidency  with  remainder 
over  to  his  heirs  and  assigns. 

Coming  up  to  the  executive  chair  of  a  great  people, 
he  was  not  in  the  least  intoxicated  by  power;  but 
coolly  appointed  a  friend,  one  of  his  secretaries,  whose 
marriage  and  its  antecedents  were  exactly  like  his  own, 
and  broke  up  his  first  cabinet  because  some  of  the 
members  and  their  families  would  not  associate  with 
the  tainted  couple.  Enveloped  in  the  fumes  of  the 
pipe,  with  only  the  occasional  imprecation — ~by  the  eter- 


Cool  in  Sacrificing  Opponents.  269 

ndl !  he  cut  off  the  heads  of  more  office-holders  than 
all  his  predecessors  put  together.  And  this  not  in  any 
sudden  spasm  of  vindictiveness.  The  pleasure  was 
economized  and  long  drawn  out,  his  partisans  hunt 
ing  up  new  victims ;  for  "  increase  of  appetite  had 
grown  by  what  it  fed  on." 

Lord  Byron,  in  1809,  visited  Ali  Pacha,  of  Yanina 
(or  Janina),  then  an  old  man,  and  formed  quite  an  in 
timacy  with  him.  Several  years  later  the  Pacha,  in  a 
Latin  epistle,  told  Byron  that  he  had  just  then  taken  a 
hostile  town,  where  his  mother  and  sisters  had  been  in 
sulted  forty-two  years  before,  and  relates  as  a  meritori 
ous  action,  that  he  caused  to  be  seized  and  shot,  under 
his  eye,  every  surviving  offender,  his  children,  grand 
children,  and  connections,  to  the  number  of  six  hun 
dred  !  Hobhouse,  the  companion  of  Byron,  describes 
the  Pacha  as  "  possessing  a  pleasing  face."  Doctor 
Holland,  another  traveller,  compares  the  spirit  that 
lurked  beneath  Ali's  usual  exterior  to  "  the  fire  of  a 
stove,  burning  fiercely  under  a  smooth  and  polished 
surface."  And  Gait,  writing  about  the  same  Turk, 
calls  him — "  That  agreeable-mannered  tyrant."  * 

*  Notes  to  Canto  II.,  Stan.  63,  of  Child*  Harold,  and  Canto  IV.,  Stan. 
45,  of  Don  Juan. 


270  Scott  lefore  a  Court. 

At  length,  late  in  the  autumn  of  1836,  the  time  for 
the  certain  condemnation  of  Scott  arrived.  The  court 
of  inquiry  consisted  of  Major-General  Macomb,  pos 
sessed  of  many  military  accomplishments,  gentlemanly 
manners,  and  a  generous  bias  towards  the  right  in  sen 
timent  and  conduct,  but  not  always  of  absolute  proof 
against  combinations  of  audacious  power  and  official 
influence.  Atkinson  and  Brady  were  walls  of  adamant 
against  all  political  violence  and  injustice.  Such  were 
the  three  members  of  the  court,  with  the  amiable 
Cooper  (the  aide-de-camp  of  Macomb)  judge  advocate. 

Scott  in  his  address  to  the  court,  after  the  over 
whelming  evidence  in  his  favor  had  been  recorded,  had 
still  to  approach  the  merits  of  the  question  with  cir 
cumspection  ;  for  the  old  lion,  whose  power  was  yet  to 
endure  several  months,  began  to  growl  lest  he  might 
after  all  lose  his  prey. 

It  is  repeated  that  Scott  approached  the  merits  of 
the  case  with  circumspection :  1.  From  his  great  and 
undeviating  respect  for  the  constituted  authorities  of 
his  country ;  and  2.  From  the  reasonable  fear  that  Gen 
eral  Jackson,  still  President,  might  in  passion  dismiss 
the  court  and  the  subject  of  investigation  before  the 
verdict  of  honorable  acquittal  could  be  recorded.  Hence 


His  Exordium.  271 

the  tone  of  Scott's  address;  and  lie  never  employed 
counsel  or  asked  for  legal  advice  in  any  military  con 
troversy.  With  deep  feeling  and  correspondent  solem 
nity  he  said : 

"  Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Court : 

"  When  a  Doge  of  Genoa,  for  some  imaginary 
offence,  imputed  by  Louis  XI Y.,  was  torn  from  his  gov 
ernment  and  compelled  to  visit  France,  in  order  to  de 
base  himself  before  that  inflated  monarch,  he  was  asked, 
in  the  palace,  what  struck  him  with  the  greatest  won 
der  amid  the  blaze  of  magnificence  in  his  view  ?  '  To 
find  myself  here  ! '  was  the  reply  of  the  indignant  Les- 
caro.  And  so,  Mr.  President,  unable,  as  I  am,  to 
remember  one  blunder  in  my  recent  operations,  or 
a  single  duty  neglected,  I  may  say,  that  to  find  my 
self  in  the  presence  of  this  honorable  court,  while 
the  army  I  but  recently  commanded  is  still  in  pur 
suit  of  the  enemy,  fills  me  with  equal  grief  and  aston 
ishment. 

"  And  whence  this  great  and  humiliating  transition  ? 
It  is,  sir,  by  the  fiat  of  one,  who,  from  his  exalted  sta 
tion,  and  yet  more  from  his  unequalled  popularity,  has 
never,  with  his  high  displeasure,  struck  a  functionary 


272  Exordium  Continued. 

of  this  Government,  no  matter  what  the  office  of  the 
individual,  humble  or  elevated,  who  was  not  from  the 
moment  withered  in  the  general  confidence  of  the 
American  people.  Yes,  sir,  it  is  my  misfortune  to  lie 
under  the  displeasure  of  that  most  distinguished  per 
sonage.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  said, 
4  Let  General  Scott  be  recalled  from  the  command  of 
the  army  in  the  field,  and  submit  his  conduct  in  the 
Seminole  and  Creek  campaigns  to  a  court  for  investi 
gation.'  And  lo !  I  stand  here  to  vindicate  that  con 
duct,  which  must  again  be  judged  in  the  last  resort,  by 
him  who  first  condemned  it  without  trial  or  inquiry. 
Be  it  so.  I  shall  not  supplicate  this  court,  nor  the 
authority  that  has  to  review  the  f  opinion '  here  given. 
On  the  contrary,  I  shall  proceed  at  once  to  challenge 
your  justice  to  render  me  that  honorable  discharge  from 
all  blame  or  censure  which  the  recorded  evidence  im 
periously  demands.  With  such  discharge  before  him, 
and  enlightened  by  the  same  mass  of  testimony,  every 
word  of  which  speaks  loudly  in  my  favor,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  the  navy  cannot  hesi 
tate;  he  must  acquiesce,  and  then,  although  nothing 
may  ever  compensate  me  for  the  deep  mortification  I 
have  been  recently  made  to  experience,  I  may  hope  to 


Emphatic  Acquittal.  273 

regain  that  portion  of  the  public  esteem  which  it  was 
my  happiness  to  enjoy  on  past  occasions  of  deep  mo 
ment  to  the  power  and  the  glory  of  the  United  States 
of  America." — Reported  in  National  Intelligencer. 

After  a  severe  and  concise  synopsis  of  the  evidence 
by  Scott,  the  court  unanimously  approved  his  conduct. 
His  plan  of  the  Seminole  campaign  was  pronounced  to 
have  been  "  well  devised  and  prosecuted  with  energy, 
steadiness,  and  ability,"  and  the  court  added  that,  in 
respect  to  the  Creek  war,  his  plan  "was  well  cal 
culated  to  lead  to  successful  results,  and  that  it  was 
prosecuted  by  him  as  far  as  practicable  with  zeal 
and  ability,  until  recalled  from  the  command."  (An 
account  of  these  transactions  and  most  of  the  events 
in  the  life  of  Scott,  are  given  in  greater  detail  and 
terse  eloquence  in  Mansfield's  biography  of  the  auto- 
biographer.) 

The  emphatic  verdict  of  acquittal  in  this  case, 
openly  approved  by  hosts  of  his  supporters,  adminis 
tered  to  President  Jackson  the  first  wholesome  re 
buke  he  had  received  in  that  office.  He  was  made 
to  feel  that  it  shook  the  public  faith  in  his  suprem 
acy.  Hence  he  did  not  dare  to  set  aside  the  well- 
12* 


274:  Jackson  Shrinks. 

reasoned,  solemn  acquittal ;  nor,  would  lie — faithful 
to  his  vindictive  nature — approve  the  verdict  of  the 
court ;  but  left  that  duty  to  his  successor  in  the  high 
office. 


CHAPTEE    XXI. 

HONORS     TENDERED BIDDLE     FAMILY SPEECH     OF      R. 

BIDDLE,  M.  0.,  VINDICATING  SCOTT JACKSON^  MARTIAL 

LAW HIS   DEATH. 

RETURNING  to  his  headquarters,  New  York,  a  pub 
lic  dinner  in  honor  of  his  triumph  before  the  court, 
was  tendered  to  the  acquitted  by  a  long  list  of  promi 
nent  citizens  of  both  parties.  The  following  letter  to  a 
committee  gives  the  result : 

"NEW  YORK,  May,  1837. 

"  GENTLEMEN  : 

"  Early  last  month  I  accepted  the  invitation  to  a 
public  dinner,  which  you  and  other  friends  did  me  the 
honor  to  tender  me.  In  a  few  days  the  commercial 


276  Honors  Tendered  the  Acquitted. 

embarrassments  of  this  great  emporium  became  such 
that  I  begged  the  compliment  might  be  indefinitely 
postponed.  You,  however,  were  so  kind  as  to  hold  me 
to  iny  engagement,  and  to  appoint  a  day  for  the  meet 
ing,  which  is  now  near  at  hand.  In  the  mean  time  the 
difficulties  in  the  commercial  world  have  gone  on  aug 
menting,  and  many  of  my  friends,  here  and  elsewhere, 
have  been  whelmed  under  the  general  calamity  of  the 
times. 

"  Feeling  deeply  for  the  losses  and  anxieties  of  all, 
no  public  honor  could  now  be  enjoyed  by  me.  I  must, 
therefore,  under  the  circumstances,  positively,  but  most 

4- 

respectfully  withdraw  my  acceptance  of  your  invita 

tion. 

"  I  have  the  honor,  etc.,  etc., 

"  WINFIELD  SCOTT." 

The  subscribers  to  the  dinner  held  a  meeting,  the 
Hon.  Cornelius  W.  Lawrence  in  the  chair,  and  unan 
imously  passed  the  following  resolutions : 

"Resolved^  That  in  the  decision  of  General  Scott 
to  withdraw,  for  the  reason  assigned,  his  acceptance  of 
the  public  dinner  designed  to  testify  to  him  our  high 
appreciation,  both  of  his  private  and  public  character, 


The  Subject  m  Congress.  277 

we  find  new  evidence  of  his  sympathy  with  all  that 
regards  the  public  welfare,  and  of  his  habitual  oblivion 
of  self,  where  the  feelings  and  interests  of  others  are 
concerned. 

"  Retctocd)  That  we  rejoice  with  the  joy  of  friends 
in  the  result,  so  honorable  to  General  Scott,  of  the  re 
cent  court  of  inquiry,  instituted  to  investigate  his  mili 
tary  conduct  as  commander-in-chief  in  Alabama  and 
Florida,  and  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
(Mr.  Yan  Buren),  in  approving  its  proceedings,  acted 
in  gratifying  unison  with  the  general  sentiments  of  the 
nation." 

Like  honors  were  tendered  about  the  same  time 
from  a  number  of  other  cities,  far  and  near,  and  all 
declined. 

About  to  quote  a  speech  on  the  recent  events,  just 
narrated,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
the  session  of  1837-'8,  by  Eichard  Biddle,  of  Pittsburg, 
the  autobiographer  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to 
dedicate  a  few  lines  to  his  connection  with  the  remark 
able  family  of  the  orator,  including  the  General  Thomas 
Cadwallader  of  the  war  of  1812-'15,  one  of  them,  by 
marriage ;  a  citizen  of  the  greatest  excellence,  and  like 
them  a  Federalist,  but  devoted  in  public  meetings  and 


278  The  Patriot  Family  of  Biddies. 

associations,  and  in  every  other  way  to  the  support  of 
the  war  after  it  was  declared. 

Scott's  intimacy  with  the  united  families  com 
menced  with  Cadwallader,  a  major-general  of  militia, 
but  most  worthy  of  a  like  rank  in  the  regular  army ; 
next  with  two  brothers,  both  majors,  Thomas  and  John 
Biddle,  who  served  with  Scott  in  the  campaigns  of 
1813  and  1814,  and  were  highly  distinguished  for  gal 
lantry,  intelligence,  and  efficiency.  At  Philadelphia, 
he  also  became  much  connected,  officially  and  in  so 
ciety,  with  the  venerable  father  of  the  two  majors, 
the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Defence^  who  had 
been  a  leading  patriot  in  the  Revolution,  and  Yice- 
President  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the  Presidency  of  Dr. 
Franklin ;  with  Nicholas  Biddle,  an  elder  brother  of  the 
majors,  sometime  Secretary  to  Mr.  Monroe,  Minister  at 
London,  and  also  the  same  to  General  Armstrong, 
Minister  at  Paris,  and  recognized  in  both  countries  as  an 
accomplished  scholar  and  linguist,  who  was,  in  1813-'14:, 
a  leader  in  the  Pennsylvania  Senate,  where  he  carried 
a  bill  for  raising  ten  thousand  regular  troops,  by  con 
scription,  at  the  cost  of  the  State,  for  the  general  ser 
vice  of  the  Union,  when  its  treasury  was  without  both 
money  and  credit.  (Virginia  and  South  Carolina  had 


Father,  Sons,  and  Grandson  Distinguished.     279 

the  honor  of  passing  similar  bills  about  the  same  time.) 
Another  brother,  the  senior  of  Nicholas,  the  gallant  Com 
modore  James  Biddle,  of  the  United  States'  Navy,  was 
early  distinguished  in  the  harbor  of  Tripoli  and  other  con 
flicts,  and  crowned  his  valor  and  seamanship  by  the  cap 
ture,  in  the  Hornet,  18  guns,  of  the  British  sloop-of-war 
Penguin,  of  about  the  same  force.  Richard,  the  fifth 
and  youngest  brother,  though  but  a  lad,  bore  arms, 
under  General  Cadwallader,  in  1813,  '14,  '15,  in  camps, 
formed  on  the  Delaware,  as  often  as  his  native  city, 
Philadelphia,  was  threatened  by  the  enemy  in  the  same 
war.  He  began  his  profession,  as  a  lawyer,  at  Pitts- 
burg  ;  soon  became  the  leader  of  that  bar,  and  first  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  December, 
1837.  Here,  in  a  service  of  three  or  four  years,  he  be 
came  the  most  classical  and  effective  debater  of  his 
time.  How  painful  it  is  to  reflect  that  not  an  individual 
named  of  this  remarkable  family — all  intimate  friends 
of  the  autobiographer — survives !  One  of  the  family, 
however,  standing  in  the  same  relation  to  Scott, 
remains  —  Charles  J.,  son  of  Nicholas,  bre vetted  a 
major  "  for  gallant  and  meritorious  conduct  at  Cha- 
pultepec,"  Mexico,  that  is,  as  the  successful  leader 
of  a  storming  party;  next  an  eminent  member  of 


280        Speech  of  R.  Biddle  in  fcwor  of  Scott. 

the    Philadelphia    bar,   and    recently   a    member    of 
Congress. 

On  an  appropriation  for  carrying  on  the  Seminole 
war,  in  his  first  session  as  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives,  Mr.  Kichard  Biddle  said : 

"  It  would  be  recollected  by  all,  that  after  the  war 
in  Florida  had  assumed  a  formidable  aspect,  Major- 
General  Scott  was  called  to  the  command.  An  officer 
of  his  rank  and  standing  was  not  likely  to  seek  a  ser 
vice  in  which,  amidst  infinite  toil  and  vexation,  there 
would  be  no  opportunity  for  the  display  of  military 
talent  on  a  scale  at  all  commensurate  with  that  in 
which  his  past  fame  had  been  acquired.  Yet  he  en 
tered  on  it  with  the  alacrity,  zeal,  and  devotion  to 
duty  by  which  he  has  ever  been  distinguished. 

"  And  here  (Mr.  B.  said)  he  might  be  permitted  to 
advert  to  the  past  history  of  this  officer. 

"  Sir,  when  the  late  General  Brown,  writing  from 
the  field  of  Chippewa,  said  that  General  Scott  merited 
the  highest  praises  which  a  grateful  country  could  be 
stow,  was  there  a  single  bosom  throughout  this  wide 
republic  that  did  not  respond  to  the  sentiment  ?  I  for 
one,  at  least,  can  never  forget  the  thrill  of  enthusiasm, 


Speech  Continued.  281* 

boy  as  I  then  was,  which  mingled  with  my  own  devout 
thankfulness  to  God,  that  the  cloud  which  seemed  to 
have  settled  on  our  arms  was  at  length  dispelled.  On 
that  plain  it  was  established  that  Americans  could  be 
trained  to  meet  and  to  beat,  in  the  open  field,  without 
breastworks,  the  regulars  of  Britain. 

##•£###•## 

"  Sir,  the  result  of  that  day  was  due  not  merely  to 
the  gallantry  of  General  Scott  upon  the  field.  It  must 
in  part  be  ascribed  to  the  patient,  anxious,  and  inde 
fatigable  drudgery,  the  consummate  skill  as  a  tactician, 
with  which  he  had  labored,  night  and  day,  at  the  camp 
near  Buffalo,  to  prepare  his  brigade  for  the  career  on 
which  it  was  about  to  enter. 

"  After  a  brief  interval  he  again  led  that  brigade 
to  the  glorious  victory  of  Bridgewater.*  He  bears  now 
upon  his  body  the  wounds  of  that  day. 

"  It  had  ever  been  the  characteristic  of  this  officer 
to  seek  the  post  of  danger,  not  to  have  it  thrust  upon 
him.  In  the  years  preceding  that  to  which  I  have 
specially  referred— in  1812  and  1813 — the  eminent  ser 
vices  he  rendered  were  in  positions  which  properly  be- 

*  Niagara  or  Lundy's  Lane — three  names  for  the  same  battle  of  July 
25,  1814. 


282  Speech  Continued. 

longed  to  others,  but  into  which  he  was  led  by  irre 
pressible  ardor  and  jealousy  of  honor. 

"  Since  the  peace  with  Great  Britain,  the  talents  of 
General  Scott  have  ever  been  at  the  command  of  his 
country.  His  pen  and  his  sword  have  alike  been  put 
in  requisition  to  meet  the  varied  exigencies  of  the  ser 
vice. 

"When  the  difficulties  with  the  Western  Indians 
swelled  up  into  importance,  General  Scott  was  des 
patched  to  the  scene  of  hostility.  There  rose  up  before 
him  then,  in  the  ravages  of  a  frightful  pestilence,  a 
form  of  danger  infinitely  more  appalling  than  the 
perils  of  the  field.  How  he  bore  himself  in  this  emer 
gency — how  faithfully  he  became  the  nurse  and  the 
physician  of  those  from  whom  terror  and  loathing  had 
driven  all  other  aid,  cannot  be  forgotten  by  a  just  and 
grateful  country." 

•x-****^** 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  believe  that  a  signal  atonement 
to  General  Scott  will,  one  day,  be  extorted  from  the 
justice  of  this  House.  We  owe  it  to  him ;  but  we  owe 
it  still  more  to  the  country.  What  officer  can  feel  se 
cure  in  the  face  of  that  great  example  of  triumphant 
injustice  ?  Who  can  place  before  himself  the  anticipa- 


Speech  Continued.  283 

tion  of  establishing  higher  claims  upon  the  gratitude 
of  the  country  than  General  Scott  ?  Yet  tie  was  sacri 
ficed.  His  past  services  went  for  nothing.  Sir,  you 
may  raise  new  regiments,  and  issue  new  commissions, 
but  you  cannot,  without  such  atonement,  restore  the 
high  moral  tone  which  befits  the  depositaries  of  the 
national  honor.  I  fondly  wish  that  the  highest  and 
the  lowest  in  the  country's  service  might  be  taught  to 
regard  this  House  as  the  jealous  guardian  of  his  rights, 
against  caprice,  or  favoritism,  or  outrage,  from  what 
ever  quarter.  I  would  have  him  know  that,  in  running 
up  the  national  flag,  at  the  very  moment  our  daily 
labors  commence,  we  do  not  go  through  an  idle  form. 
On  whatever  distant  service  he  may  be  sent — whether 
urging  his  way  amidst  tumbling  icebergs,  toward  the 
pole,  or  fainting  in  the  unwholesome  heats  of  Florida 
— I  would  enable  him,  as  he  looks  up  to  that  flag, 
to  gather  hope  and  strength.  It  should  impart  to 
him  a  proud  feeling  of  confidence  and  security.  He 
should  know  that  the  same  emblem  of  majesty  and 
justice  floats  over  the  councils  of  the  nation;  and 
that  in  its  untarnished  lustre  we  have  all  a  com 
mon  interest  and  a  common  sympathy.  Then,  sir, 
and  not  before,  will  you  have  an  army  or  a  navy 


284  Martial  Law  at  Home. 

worthy  to  sustain  and  to  perpetuate  the  glory  of  former 
days." 

Before  entering  on  a  new  administration,  disregard 
ing  the  rigors  of  chronology,  in  favor  of  continuity  of 
subjects,  the  autobiographer  adds  two  more  notices  of 
General  Jackson.  The  following  review  was  written 
by  Scott,  pending  a  discussion  in  Congress  on  a  bill  to 
refund  the  fine  levied  by  Judge  Hall  for  Jackson's  ar 
rest  of  the  judge. 

From  the  National  Intelligencer  of  January  4,  1843. 

"  Martial  Law,  T>y  a  Kentuckian  •  fowr  Essays,  repub- 
lished  in  the  pamphlet  form,  from  the  Louisville 
Journal,  1842 ;  pp.  14." 

"  This  timely  publication,  understood  to  be  from 
the  pen  of  a  distinguished  ex-judge  of  the  Kentucky 
Court  of  Appeals,*  discusses,  with  much  learning  and 
ability,  the  extraordinary  doctrines  recently  avowed  in 
Congress  and  elsewhere,  attributing  to  a  commander 
of  an  army  in  the  field,  the  right  to  proclaim  and  en- 

*  S.  S.  Nicholas. 


Subject  Continued.  285 

force  martial  law  as  against  citizens  (including  legis 
lators  and  judges)  wholly  unconnected  with  the  mili 
tary  service. 

The  monstrous  proposition  avowed  has  raised  the 
indignant  voice  of  a  Kentuckian^  and  it  is  only  neces 
sary  to  read  him  to  consign  the  speeches  and  writings 
he  reviews  to  the  same  repository  with  the  passive 
obedience  and  non-resistance  doctrines  of  the  Filmers 
and  Hobbses  of  a  former  age. 

"With  a  view  to  a  similar  discussion,  I  had  been 
occasionally  engaged,  for  a  week,  in  collecting  mate 
rials,  when  a  friend  placed  in  my  hands  a  copy  of  the 
pamphlet  mentioned  at  the  head  of  this  article.  Find 
ing  it  to  cover  nearly  the  whole  ground  I  had  intended 
to  occupy,  I  shall  now  confine  my  humble  labors  to 
selections  from  my  notes,  planting  here  and  there  a  few 
principles,  authorities,  and  illustrations  in  such  corners 
or  blank  spaces  as  a  Kentuckian  has  overlooked. 

In  England,  the  land  forces  in  the  public  service 
— regulars  and  militia,  of  whatever  name  and  arm — 
are  governed  by  an  annual  mutiny  act,  and  a  sub-code 
called  articles  of  war,  made  by  the  king,  under  the  ex 
press  authority  of  the  former.  The  preamble  of  that 
act  always  recites : 


286  Subject  Continued. 

'  Whereas,  the  raising  or  keeping  a  standing  army 
within  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  unless  it  be  with  the  consent  of  Parliament, 
is  against  law,  and,  whereas,  it  is  judged  necessary  by 
his  Majesty  and  his  present  Parliament  that  a  body  of 
forces  should  be  continued  for  the  safety  (etc.),  and  that 
the  whole  number  of  such  forces  should  consist  of 

thousand  men,  exclusive  of  (etc.) ;  and,  whereas, 

no  man  can  be  forejudged  of  life  or  limb,  or  subjected 
to  any  kind  of  punishment  within  this  realm,  by  mar- 
tial  law,  or  in  any  other  manner  than  by  the  judgment 
of  his  peers,  and  according  to  the  known  and  estab 
lished  laws  of  the  realm ;  yet,  nevertheless,  it  being 
requisite  for  the  retaining  all  the  before-mentioned 
forces  in  their  duty,  that  an  exact  discipline  be  ob 
served,  and  that  soldiers  who  shall  mutiny  or  stir  up 
sedition,  or  shall  desert  his  Majesty's  service,  be 
brought  to  a  more  exemplary  and  speedy  punishment 
than  the  usual  forms  of  law  will  allow ;  be  it  therefore 
enacted,'  etc.  (when  follow  a  careful  enumeration  of 

all  the  higher  crimes  which  military  men  can  commit 
• 

against  discipline ;  that  is,  against  good  order  and  sub 
ordination  in  an  army.  At  the  end  of  each  enumer 
ation,  the  act  declares  that  every  officer  or  soldier  so 


Subject  Continued.  287 

offending  '  shall  suffer  death,  or  such  other  punish 
ment  as  by  a  court  martial  shall  be  awarded.') 

The  articles  of  war  are  entirely  subordinate  to 
the  mutiny  act,  and  originate  nothing  but  certain 
smaller  details  for  the  "better  government  of  the  forces. 

It  is  in  view  of  the  high  principles  of  civil  liberty, 
consecrated  by  Parliament  as  above,  that  Tytler,  for  a 
long  time  Judge  Advocate  of  Scotland,  says  in  his 
Essay  on  Military  Law :  c  Martial  Law  was  utterly 
disclaimed  as  binding  the  subjects  in  general.  The 
modern  British  soldier,  enjoying  in  common  with  his 
fellow  subjects,  every  benefit  of  the  laws  of  his  coun 
try,  is  bound  by  the  military  code  solely  to  the  observ 
ance  of  the  peculiar  duties  of  his  profession?  And  so 
Lord  Loughborough,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common 
Pleas  (soon  after  as  Earl  of  Roslin,  Lord  High  Chan 
cellor),  said,  in  Trinity  Term,  1792,  on  a  motion  on 
behalf  of  Sergeant  Grant :  *  Martial  Law,  such  as  it  is 
described  by  Hale,  and  such  also  as  it  is  marked  by  Sir 
William  Blackstone,  does  not  exist  in  England  at  all.5 
He  gives  examples,  in  the  way  of  distinction  between 
Great  Britain  and  continental  Europe,  as  also  between 
military  persons  and  others  at  home,  thus:  'In  the 
reign  of  King  William  there  was  a  conspiracy  against 


288  Subject  Continued. 

his  person  in  Holland.  The  persons  guilty  of  that  con 
spiracy  were  tried  by  a  council  of  officers.  There  was 
a  conspiracy  against  his  person  in  England ;  but  the 
conspirators  were  tried  by  the  common  law.'  There 
fore  (adds  the  Chief  Justice),  '  it  is  totally  inaccurate  to 
state  martial  law  as  haying  any  place  whatever  within 
the  realm  of  Great  Britain,  as  against  subjects  not  in 
the  line  of  military  duty.'  But  (he  continues),  an  army 
is  established  in  this  country  (etc.) ;  it  is  an  indispen 
sable  requisite  (etc.),  that  there  should  be  order  and 
discipline  (etc.)  ;  that  the  persons  composing  it  should, 
for  all  offences  in  their  military  capacity,  be  subject  to 
a  trial  by  their  officers.'  Ty tier's  Essay,  with  this  opin 
ion  of  Lord  Loughborough,  given  in  a  note  at  length, 
was  published  in  the  last  century,  and  was  in  the  hands 
of  our  officers,  generally,  before  the  "War  of  1812. 

There  is  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  an  ex 
cellent  popular  view,  given  by  an  eminent  lawyer,  ol 
the  same  general  question  : 

'  Military,  or  martial  law,  is  that  branch  of  the 
laws  of  war  which  respect  military  discipline,  or  the 
government  and  control  of  persons  employed  in  the 
operation  of  war.  Military  law  is  not  exclusive  of  the 
common  law ;  for  a  man,  by  becoming  a  soldier,  does 


Subject  Continued.  289 

not  cease  to  be  a  citizen,  or  member  of  the  common 
wealth.  He  is  a  citizen  still,  capable  of  performing 
the  duties  of  a  subject,  and  answerable  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  law,  for  his  conduct  in  that  capacity  (as  mur 
der,  theft,  and  other  felonies).  Martial  law  is,  there 
fore,  a  system  of  rule  superadded  to  the  common  law 
for  regulating  the  citizen  in  his  character  of  a  soldier? 

Notwithstanding  those  conservative  views,  long 
embodied  in  the  laws  and  public  opinion  of  England, 
which  hold  in  utter  abhorrence  the  application  of  mar 
tial  law  to  any  person  not  at  the  time  in  the  military 
service,  one  general,  and  many  eminent  statesmen  and 
public  writers  are  found  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
who  ignorantly  suppose  that  that  law,  described  and 
stigmatized  by  Hale  and  Blackstone  '  as  in  truth  and 
reality  no  law,  but  something  indulged  rather  than 
allowed  as  law,'  is  a  part  of  the  common  law  in  these 
States,  because  mentioned  in  those  great  common-law 
writers,  and  therefore  an  engine  which  every  command 
er  of  an  army  in  the  field  may  indulge  himself  with,  at 
his  own  wanton  discretion,  against  the  free  citizens  of 
republican  America ! 

Is  there  anything  in  our  statute  book  to  warrant 
a  conception  so  monstrous  ? 
13 


290  Subject  Continued. 

We  have  no  mutiny  act,  so  called.  Our  '  rules 
and  articles  for  the  Government  of  the  armies  of  the 
United  States '  were  borrowed  from  that  act  and  the 
British  articles  of  war  (in  part),  July  30,  1775,  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  code  was  en 
larged  by  the  old  Congress  from  the  same  sources, 
September  20,  1776.  In  this  form  it  was  enacted  by 
the  first  Congress  under  the  Constitution;  and  again 
reenacted,  substantially  the  same,  April  10,  1806,  as  it 
stands  at  present.  The  act  consists  of  but  three  sec 
tions.  The  first  declares :  {  The  following  shall  be  the 
rules  and  articles  by  which  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  governed ; '  and  gives  one  hundred  and 
one  articles.  Each  article  is  confined,  in  express  terms, 
to  the  persons  composing  the  army.  The  next — the 
celebrated  second  section — contains  the  only  exception  ; 
and  what  an  exception  !  It  is  in  these  words : 

4  In  time  of  war,  all  persons  not  citizens  of,  or 
owing  allegiance  to,  the  United  States  of  America, 
who  shall  be  found  lurking,  as  spies,  in  or  about  the 
fortifications  or  encampments  of  the  armies  of  the 
United  States,  or  any  of  them,  shall  suffer  death,  ac 
cording  to  the  law  and  usage  of  nations,  by  sentence 
of  a  general  court  martial.' 


Subject  Continued.  291 

cNot  citizens,'  because  if  citizens,  and  found  so 
;  lurking,'  the  crime  would  be  that  of  treason — '  ad 
hering  to  [our]  enemies,  giving  them  aid  and  comfort ; ' 
and  is  so  defined  by  the  Constitution. 

The  third,  or  remaining  section  of  our  military 
code,  merely  repeals  the  previous  act,  which  adopted 
the  resolves  of  the  old  Congress  for  governing  the 
army. 

There  is  nothing,  then,  in  this  code  to  give  the 
slightest  pretence  that  any  part  of  it  can,  by  possibility, 
be  applied  to  citizens  not  attached  to  an  army. 

A  Kentuckian  further  argues  against  such  barba 
rian  application,  from  the  silence  of  the  Constitution. 
But,  in  a  matter  so  infinitely  important  to  the  existence 
of  free  government  and  our  civil  liberties,  the  Constitu 
tion  is  not  silent.  The  fifth  amendment  expressly  de 
clares  :  i  ~No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capi 
tal  or  otherwise  infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  present 
ment  or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  'except  in  cases 
arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  militia 
when  in  actual  service,  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger.'9 
(The  militia,  by  the  previous  article  1,  section  8,  can 
only  be  called  out  'to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union, 
suppress  insurrections,  and  repel  invasions.')  And  the 


292  Subject  Continued. 

6th  amendment  is  to  the  same  effect :  '  In  all  criminal 
prosecutions  (the  exception  of  military  persons,  as 
above,  being  understood)  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the 
right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial  by  an  impartial /wry.' 
(Military  courts  always  deliberate  in  secrecy?) 

If  these  amendments  do  not  expressly  secure  the 
citizen,  not  belonging  to  an  army,  from  the  possibility 
of  being  dragged  before  a  council  of  war  or  court 
martial,  for  any  crime,  or  on  any  pretence  whatsoever, 
then  there  can  be  no  security  for  any  human  right  un 
der  human  institutions ! 

Congress  and  the  President  could  not,  if  they  were 
unanimous,  proclaim  martial  law  over  any  portion  of 
the  United  States,  without  firs^  throwing  those  amend 
ments  into  the  fire.  And  if  Mr.  President  Madison 
(begging  pardon  of  his  memory  for  the  violent  suppo 
sition)  had  sent  an  order  to  General  Jackson  to  estab 
lish  the  odious  code  over  the  citizens  of  New  Orleans 
during,  before,  or  after  the  siege  of  that  capital,  it 
would  have  been  the  duty  of  the  general,  under  his 
oath  to  obey  the  Constitution,  to  have  withheld  obedi 
ence  ;  for,  by  the  9th  article  of  war  (the  only  one  on  or 
ders),  officers  are  not  required  to  obey  any  but  '  lawful 
commands.' 


Subject  Continued.  293 

General  Jackson  f  took  the  responsibility  '  with 
as  little  of  necessity,  or  even  utility,  as  of  law.  In  this 
he  stands  distinguished  from  every  American  command 
er  from  the  Declaration  of  Independence  down  to  the 
present  day.  The  Constitution — not  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  merely — being  suspended,  he  imprisoned  Mr. 
Louallier ;  he  imprisoned  the  Federal  Judge  (Hall)  for 
issuing  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  inquire  into  the  cause 
of  that  imprisonment ;  and  he  imprisoned  the  United 
States'  District  Attorney  (Dick)  for  seeking  to  procure 
from  a  State  judge  a  writ  of  Iwibeas  corpus  for  the 
Federal  judge.  Mr.  Louallier,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  (by  the  treaty  of  Louisiana),  a  highly  respectable 
member  of  the  State  Senate,  and  in  no  way  connected 
with  the  army,  was  put  on  trial  for  his  life,  before  a 
court  martial,  on  five  several  imaginary  charges.  One 
of  these  was  for  leing  a  spy,  under  the  second  section, 
given  above !  "Whatever  may  be  our  astonishment  at 
the  fact  that  a  court  of  American  officers  should  have 
proceeded,  under  illegal  orders,  to  try  such  a  prisoner 
on  such  charges,  they  saved  themselves  and  the  country 
from  that  last  of  degradations — the  finding  the  prisoner 
guilty  'because  accused  by  the  commanding  general. 
Mr.  Louallier  was  acquitted.  « 


294:  Subject  Continued. 

When  Pompey  played  the  petty  tyrant  at  Sicily, 
as  the  lieutenant  of  that  master-despot  Sylla,  he  sum 
moned  before  him  the  Mamertines.  That  people  re 
fused  to  appear,  alleging  that  they  stood  excused  by 
an  ancient  privilege  granted  them  by  the  Romans. 
'  What ! '  said  Sylla's  lieutenant ;  c  will  you  never  have 
done  with  citing  laws  and  privileges  to  men  who  wear 
swords  ! '  Koman  liberty  had  already  been  lost  in  the 
distemperature  of  the  times.  Inter  arma  silent  leges 
found  its  way  into  our  young  republic  in  the  thirty- 
ninth  year  of  its  existence. 

If  Pompey  had  gained  the  battle  of  Pharsalia, 
would  his  odious  reply  to  the  Mamertines  have  been 
forgiven  by  the  lovers  of  law  and  of  human  liberty  ? 
With  such  maxims  of  government,  it  was  of  little  con 
sequence  to  the  Roman  world  that  Ceesar  won  the  day. 
A  Yerres  would  have  been  as  good  as  either. 

For  the  glorious  defence  of  New  Orleans,  Con 
gress  voted  thanks  and  a  gold  medal  to  the  hen;. 
That  measure  of  justice  was  short  at  both  ends.  Cen 
sure  and  a  monument  should  have  been  added. 

That  all  soldiers  in  our  republic  do  not  concur  in 
the  maxims  above  reprobated,  a  striking  example  lies 
before  me.  In  the  gejieral  regulations  for  the  army, 


Subordination  to  Civil  Authority.  £95 

drawn  up  in  1825  by  one  of  our  officers  [Scott]  and 
cheerfully  obeyed  T>y  all,  we  have  this  head :  £  /Subordi 
nation  to  the  civil  authorities  /  '  and  under  it,  the  fol 
lowing  : 

4  Kespect  and  obedience  to  the  civil  authorities  of 
the  land  is  the  chity  of  all  citizens,  and  more  particular 
ly  of  those  who  are  armed  in  the  public  service. 

4  An  individual  officer  or  soldier  who  resists  the 
civil  authority,  will  do  so  at  his  peril,  as  in  the  case  of 
any  other  citizen ;  but  union  or  concert  between  two 
or  more  military  men  in  such  resistance,  whether  vol 
untary  or  by  order,  would  be  a  much  more  serioub 
offence,  and  is,  therefore,  positively  prohibited. 

f  A  civil  officer  charged  with  the  execution  of  civil 
process  will,  on  making  known  his  character,  be  freely 
permitted  to  pass  and  repass  all  guards  and  sentinels. 

4  In  the  case  of  cri?ninal  process,  issued  by  the  civil 
authority  against  military  persons,  all  officers  are  ex 
pressly  required  by  the  33d  article  of  war  to  give  active 
aid  and  assistance.' 

This  article  of  war  is  too  remarkable  to  be  omit 
ted  here.  Like  the  mutiny  act  of  England,  it  speaks 
of  4  the  known  laws  of  the  land,'  in  contradistinction 
and  as  superior  to  the  martial  code.  Under  it,  Gen- 


296  Subject  Continued. 

eial  Jackson's  own  officers  were  bound  to  aid  in  causing 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  be  executed  against  him, 
as  also  in  executing  the  precept  for  his  appearance 
before  the  judge,  if  he  had  refused  to  appear,  and  to 
submit  to  the  sentence  of  the  court.  The  article  is  a 
part  of  the  law  of  Congress  and  of  'the  Constitution, 
being  enacted  in  strict  pursuance  to  the  latter. 

c  Article  33.  When  any  commissioned  officer  or 
soldier  shall  be  accused  of  a  capital  crime  or  of  having 
used  violence,  or  committed  any  offence  against  the  per 
sons  or  property  of  any  citizen  of  any  of  the  United 
States,  such  as  is  punishable  by  the  known  laws  of  the 
land,  the  commanding  officer  and  officers  of  every  regi 
ment,  troop  or  company,  to  which  the  persons  so  ac 
cused  shall  belong,  are  hereby  required,  upon  applica 
tion  duly  made  by,  or  in  behalf  of,  the  party  or  parties 
injured,  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors  to  deliver  over 
such  accused  person  or  persons  to  the  civil  magistrate, 
and  likewise  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  to  the  officers  of 
justice  in  apprehending  and  securing  the  person  or 
persons  so  accused,  in  order  to  bring  him  or  them  to 
trial.  If  any  commanding  officer  or  officers  shall  wil 
fully  neglect,  or  shall  refuse,  upon  the  application  afore 
said,  to  deliver  over  such  accused  person  or  persons,  to 


Subject  Continued.  297 

the  civil  magistrates,  or  to  be  aiding  and  assisting  to 
the  officers  of  justice,  in  apprehending  such  person  or 
persons,  the  officer  or  officers  so  offending  shall  be 
cashiered.' 

This  rule  and  article  '  for  the  government  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States,'  is  as  old,  on  the  statute 
book,  as  our  glorious  Revolution  of  1776,  and  as  old  in 
England  (whence  we  borrowed  it)  as  the  glorious  Revo 
lution  which  drove  out  James  II.  and  his  martial  law.* 
It  is  expressed  in  the  very  spirit  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race — ever  jealous  of  liberty.  Under  this  safeguard — 
with  spirited  citizens,  independent  judges,  and  obedi 
ent  soldiers,  taught  their  duties  to  the  civil  authorities 
— what  military  officer  dare  to  suspend  the  Constitu 
tion,  or  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or  to  imprison  citi 
zens — each  a  capital  crime  or  an  act  of  gross  violence  ? 

A.  Kentuckian  has  cited,  from  most  of  the  State 
constitutions,  express  provisions  placing  the  military, 
at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances,  in  strict  sub 
ordination  to  the  civil  authority.  In  South  Carolina, 
during  the  Revolutionary  "War,  at  the  moment  that 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  investing  the  devoted  city  of 

*  Martial  law  as  applied  to  persons  not  of  the  army  has  been  unknown 
in  England  since  that  great  event. 

13* 


298  Subject  Continued. 

Charleston,  and  the  Tories  were  in  arms  everywhere, 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  empowered  her  excellent 
Governor,  John  Rutledge,  after  consulting  with  such 
of  his  counsel  as  he  conveniently  could,  £  to  do  every 
thing  necessary  for  the  public  good,  except  the  taking 
away  the  life  of  a  citizen  without  legal  trial?  Under 
that  exception,  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  to  shield  the  liberty  and  the 
life  of  the  citizen,  there  was  no  Louallier  deprived  of 
one  and  put  in  jeopardy  of  the  other,  by  martial  law. 

It  is  vulgarly  supposed,  particularly  by  those  who, 
*  dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority,'  and  lust  for  more, 
that  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  lets  in 
upon  the  citizen  martial  law.  The  suspension  by  Con 
gress  would,  certainly,  for  the  time,  enable  power  to 
hold  any  citizen  incarcerated  without  cause,  and  with 
out  trial ;  but,  if  brought  to  trial,  it  must  still  be  before 
one  of  the  ordinary  courts  of  the  land.  In  the  suspen 
sion  by  martial  law,  as  in  continental  Europe,  all  other 
writs,  remedies,  and  rights  which  might  stand  in  the 
way  of  power,  according  to  its  own  arbitrary  will,  would 
be  suspended  at  the  same  time.  Tyrannic  rule  could 
want  nothing  more. 

It   is  a  curious   fact   that  this  writ  has  been  but 


Wilkinson  and  Jackson  for  Martial  Law.      29y 

twice  practically  suspended — (by  Generals  Wilkinson 
and  Jackson) — in  both  instances  at  New  Orleans,  and 
never  once,  constitutionally,  anywhere  in  the  United 
States  since  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
Constitution  declares  that  'the  privileges  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when, 
in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may 
require  it,'  in  the  opinion  of  Congress. 

During  Burr's  conspiracy,  Mr.  Giles,  in  the  Sen 
ate,  upon  a  message  from  the  President,  introduced  a 
bill  for  a  three  months'  suspension  of  that  great  writ. 
It  was,  in  a  panic,  immediately  passed,  and  sent  to  the 
House,  January  26,  1807.  The  House,  all  on  the  same 
day  (January  26%  refused  to  deliberate  in  secrecy ;  and, 
on  the  question,  c  Shall  the  bill  be  rejected  ? '  the  votes 
stood — ayes,  113 ;  noes,  19 ;  a  great  triumph  of  civil 
liberty  over  panic  and  outlawry ! 

This  is  the  only  constitutional  attempt  at  suspend 
ing  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ever  made  in  free  Amer 
ica.  May  we  never  hear  of  another  in  Congress  or 
elsewhere ! 

A  SOLDIER  OF  ONE  WAE." 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  autobiographer,  being  in 


300       Scott  Announces  the  Death  of  Jackson. 

Paris,  got  up,  under  very  extraordinary  circumstances 
(see  above,  p.  166),  the  first  celebration  of  the  8th  of 
January — the  anniversary  of  the  great  defence  of  New 
Orleans.  So,  being  President  of  the  Board  of  West 
Point  visitors,  in  June,  1845,  news  came  to  him,  while 
a  class  was  under  examination,  which  caused  him  to 
make  this  short  address :  "  Major  Delafield,  Superin 
tendent.  I  suspend  the  further  labors  of  this  examina 
tion  till  to:morrow,  in  honor  of  an  event  interesting  to 
all  Americans.  A  great  man  has  fallen  among  us. 
ANDREW  JACKSON,  after  filling  the  world  with  his  fame, 
and  crowning  his  country  with  glory,  departed  this  life 
on  the  8th  instant.  It  is  not  for  any  authority  inferior 
to  the  President,  to  prescribe  the  special  honors  to  be 
paid  to  the  illustrious  dead  by  the  military  posts  and 
troops  of  the  United  States.  No  doubt,  orders  on  the 
subject  will  soon  arrive  from  Washington." — And  so 
ended  Scott's  relations  with  the  hero  of  New  Orleans. 


CHAPTEK    XXII. 

PRESIDENT    VAN     BUREN FINE    TEMPER CANADIAN    AGI 
TATIONS BURNING     OF     THE     CAROLINE SCOTT     SENT 

TO     THE     FRONTIER THE      TURMOIL      QUIETED SCOTT 

SENT    TO   REMOVE   THE    CHEROKEES. 

MR.  YAJST  BUREN  succeeded  to  the  presidency. 
With  a  very  respectable  degree  of  moral  firmness,  all 
his  other  qualities  were  in  happy  contrast  with  those 
of  his  predecessor. 

Few  men  have  ever  suffered  less  wear  and  tear  of 
body  and  mind  from  irascible  emotions.  Hume,  in 
his  unique  autobiography,  says  of  himself:  "I  am,  or 
rather  was  "  (for  being  at  the  end  of  life,  "  emboldens 
me  the  more  to  speak  my  sentiments) ; — I  was,  I  say, 


302  President  Van  Buren. 

a  man  of  mild  disposition,  of  command  of  temper,  of 
an  open,  social,  and  cheerful  humor,  capable  of  attach 
ment,  but  little  susceptible  of  enmity,  and  of  great 
moderation  in  all  my  passions,"  which  advantages  he, 
some  pages  before,  puts  down  as  of  more  worth  than 
"  to  be  born  to  an  estate  of  ten  thousand  a  year." 

According  to  this  mode  of  estimation,  Mr.  Yan 
Buren,  throughout  a  long  life,  was  a  millionaire.  He 
entered  on  the  presidency  with  right  intentions  toward 
his  country  and  all  mankind,  and  with  the  needful  gifts 
and  abilities  to  make  an  excellent  practical  administra 
tor  of  the  Executive  Department — only  that  from  the 
sense  of  gratitude  to  General  Jackson,  he  felt  himself 
obliged  to  work  with  (one  exception)  the  old  cabinet, 
consisting  of  members  he  never  would  have  selected  for 
himself;  and,  in  the  second  place,  he  retained  a  little 
of  his  early  and  only  weakness — an  inclination  toward 
the  expedient  more  than  either  of  the  Catos,  a  Hanip- 
den,  or  Roland  would  have  approved. 

The  autobiographer  became  early  in  the  War  of 
1812-'15  acquainted  with  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  an  ac 
quaintance  that  soon  ran  into  intimacy  and  friendship ; 
and  he  believes  he  was  the  first  to  suggest  that,  with 
his  advantageous  standpoint,  it  would  be  easy  for  the 


Scotffs  Early  Intimacy  with  Him.  303 

rising  JS"ew  Yorker  to  make  himself  the  President  of 

. 

the  United  States.  That  friendship  was  cooled  down 
— suspended,  for  many  years — Mr.  Yan  Buren  taking 
an  active  part  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Crawford,  for  the  presi 
dency,  in  the  election  of  1824,  and  Scott,  though  stand 
ing  aloof,  being,  in  his  open  tp&faf,  on  the  side  of  Mr. 
Adams.  The  separation  continued  through  the  con 
test  that  elected  General  Harrison  to  the  presidency  in 
1840.  The  social  courtesies,  however,  between  the  par 
ties,  as  often  as  they  chanced  to  meet,  remained  all  the 
while  unchanged. 

As  soon  as  elected  to  the  presidency  (November, 
1836),  Mr.  Yan  Buren,  highly  approved  of  his  son's 
(Major  Abrain  Yan  Buren)  wish,  to  join  Scott,  then 
before  the  court  of  inquiry  at  Frederick,  on  the  ground 
that  he  might  be  needed  as  a  witness  on  certain  points 
only  known,  as  he  (the  major)  supposed,  to  himself, 
while  a  volunteer  aide-de-camp  to  Scott,  in  the  Semi- 
nole  war.  Indeed,  for  the  same  delicate  reason,  the 
major  had  declined,  some  months  before,  against  a 
strong  inclination,  to  make  the  tour  of  Europe,  al 
though  he  and  Scott  (through  wrongs  of  third  parties) 
were  not,  at  the  time,  on  speaking  terms ;  and  further, 
although  Scott  had  given  assurances  that  he  could,  by 


304:  His  Son  Aide-de-Oamp. 

circumstantial  evidence,  dispense  with  the  major's  pres 
ence. 

His  arrival,  however,  was  of  great  value  as  a  volun 
teer  secretary ;  for  Scott  had  been  without  any  one  of 
his  staff  (two  regular  aids)  from  the  beginning  of  the 
court.  Major  William  de  Peyster,  of  New  York,  and 
for  some  time  planter  in  Florida,  had  marched  with 
Scott  from  Tampa  Bay  as  a  volunteer  aid,  and  tendered 
him  good  assistance  as  an  amanuensis  at  Frederick. 

A  word  more  on  this  subject  may  be  pardoned 
the  autobiographer.  Major  Yan  Buren,  as  paymaster, 
made  the  campaign  of  Mexico  with  Scott,  and  although 
encumbered  with  a  military  chest,  containing  money 
and  vouchers,  amounting  to  millions,  he  never  failed, 
at  the  first  gun,  to  hasten,  mounted,  to  Scott,  as  a  vol 
unteer  aid,  and  gallantly  rode  through  every  battle,  a 
bearer  of  orders,  with  his  accustomed  quiet  smile  and 
amiability.  The  lieutenant-colonelcy  given  him  at  the 
end  of  this  war  was  the  inadequate  reward  of  such 
heroism. 

President  Yan  Buren,  while  in  office,  never  omitted 
on  proper  occasions,  to  show  kindness  to  Scott,  and  it 
gives  the  latter  great  pleasure  to  add,  that  the  ancient 
friendship  between  the  parties  became  revived  some 


Canadian  Patriots — Agitators.  305 

twenty  years  before  the  death  of  the  former  and  con 
tinued  up  to  that  event. 

'  In  the  winter  of  1837-'8,  a  singular  disturbance 
broke  out  on  the  lake  and  northern  frontiers  of  the 
Union.  A  number  of  radicals,  in  the  Canadas,  had,  a 
little  earlier,  begun  to  agitate  in  favor  of  certain  revo 
lutionary  changes,  with  an  eye,  on  the  part  of  many, 
toward  ultimate  annexation  to  the  United  States. 
The  heat  of  the  strife  soon  crossed  the  frontiers  and 
extended,  in  many  directions,  to  the  depth  of  forty  and 
sixty  miles  into  the  United  States.'  More  than  two 
hundred  thousand  Americans  took  the  infection,  or 
ganized  themselves  into  lodges,  bound  by  oath  to 
secrecy,  and  ridiculously  enough,  without  ever  having 
been  in  Canada,  or  knowing  anything  about  the  merits 
of  the  question,  called  themselves  Canadian  Patriots ! 
— eager  to  invade  the  Provinces  and  fight  for  their 
rights ! !  Here  was  another  of  "  the  cankers  of  a  calm 
world  and  a  long  peace." 

A  circumstance  soon  occurred  that  exasperated  to  a 
high  degree  the  frontier  population  on  the  American 
side  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  borders  of  New  Hamp 
shire.  A.  mauvais  sujet^  calling  himself  Colonel  Van 
Rensselaer  (no  relation  of  the  patroons),  a  dismissed 


306  Burning  of  the  Caroline. 

cadet  from  the  Military  Academy,  had  organized  a 
number  of  those  Americans  whose  patriotism  was  in  a 
foreign  country,  and  taken  possession  of  a  small  Brit 
ish  island  called  Navy  Island,  opposite  to  Schlosser,  on 
the  American  side,  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  above 
the  Niagara  Falls.  Here,  after  the  Canadian  people — 
the  militia  themselves — had,  without  regulars,  sup 
pressed  an  attempted  revolt  in  that  neighborhood — 
Yan  Kensselaer  hopelessly  awaited  events.  A  little 
steamer,  the  Caroline,  came  down,  December  29,  to 
serve  as  a  ferry  boat  between  the  island  and  Schlosser, 
and  made  fast  for  the  night  to  the  wharf  of  the  latter. 
Before  morning  an  expedition,  under  a  Mr.  McLeod, 
was  fitted  out  from  the  Canada  side,  which  shirked  the 
British  island,  where  it  might  easily  have  captured  the 
patriot  camp,  and  seized,  by  surprise,  the  steamer; 
killed  several  persons  on  board;  set  her  on  fire,  and 
sent  her  adrift  over  the  cataract — as  it  was  erroneously 
believed,  for  a  time — with  wounded  Americans  in  her 
hold.  This  was  a  clear  violation  of  neutrality,  involv 
ing  murder,  which  outrages  caused  all  along  the  fron 
tiers,  a  very  general  cry  for  war — by,  or  without  au 
thority. 

The  news  reached  "Washington  late  in  the  day  of 


Scott  Despatched  to  the  Niagara.  307 

January  4,  1838.  It  so  happened  that  President  Yan 
Buren  had  invited  to  dine  with  him,  the  same  evening, 
Mr.  Clay  and  a  large  number  (nineteen)  Whig  friends, 
with  three  or  four  Democrats.  The  autobiographer 
was  one  of  the  former.  All  had  arrived,  and  the  ap 
pointed  hour  had  long  gone  by,  but  still  the  President 
was  absent.  He,  it  became  known,  after  a  time,  was 
in  council  with  his  cabinet.  The  Whigs  jestingly  in 
quired  of  the  Democrats  if  the  President  had  abdicated 
or  was  about  to  resign.  All  were  equally  ignorant, 
merry,  and  hungry.  At  length  the  master  of  the 
feast  came  down,  and  whispered  the  news  to  Mr.  Clay 
and  Scott — saying  to  the  latter :  "  Blood  has  been 
shed ;  you  must  go  with  all  speed  to  the  Niagara  fron 
tier.  The  Secretary  of  War  (Mr.  Poinsett)  is  now  en 
gaged  in  writing  your  instructions." 

The  circumstances,  as  already  known,  were  suffi 
ciently  critical,  and  private  letters  represented  that 
there  was  reason  to  apprehend  the  city  of  Buffalo 
might  be  seized,  perhaps,  sacked,  by  the  outraged 
Canadians,  to  break  up  the  hotbed  of  the  patriots  and 
destroy  their  depots. 

Passing  through  Albany,  and  not  knowing  what 
number  of  the  militia  he  might  have  occasion  to  call 


308       Frontier  Men  want  to  Invade  Canada. 

for,  Scott,  at  his  own  suggestion,  prevailed  on  Gov 
ernor  Marcy  and  the  adjutant-general  of  the  State 
(McDonald)  to  accompany  him  to  the  scene  of  difficul 
ties,  so  that  no  time  might  be  lost  by  a  correspondence 
between  Federal  and  State  authorities  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  apart. 

There  were  no  regular  troops  on  the  Niagara 
They  were  all  in  Florida,  or  on  the  Western  frontiers. 
Journeying  through  New  York,  Scott  had  ordered  to 
follow  him  several  detachments  of  army  recruits.  To 
supply  the  needed  physical  force,  he  had  ample  powers 
to  call  for  the  uninfected  militia  of  the  Border  States, 
including  Western  Virginia  and  Kentucky. 

1.  All  this  was  quite  a  new  scene  for  Scott.  In 
1812,  '13,  '14  he  had  appeared  on  the  same  theatre  as 
the  leader  of  battalions  and  participator  in  victories. 
Now,  rhetoric  and  diplomacy  were  to  be  his  principal 
weapons,  his  countrymen  and  friends  the  objects  of 
conquest,  and  a  little  correspondence  with  the  British 
authorities  beyond  the  line,  as  an  episode  to  the  whole. 
Had  Scott  not  been  a  soldier,  though  he  had  been  the 
famed  Athenian  orator  or  the  American 

"  Henry,  the  forest-born  Demosthenes, 
Whose  thunders  shook  the  Philip  of  the  seas," 


The  Agitators  Difficult  to  Restrain.          309 

his  entreaties  and  harangues  would  have  been  wholly 
lost  upon  his  hearers.  But  the  memory  of  other  days 
gave  to  hiin  an  influence  which  he  would  have  sought 
in  vain  without  it.  The  soldier  of  1812,  '13,  '14,  reap 
pearing  near  the  scene  of  his  former  activity,  drew 
forth  the  applause  of  listening  multitudes. 

2.  During  the  winter  of  1838  and  that  of  1838-'9, 
he  was  busy  in  exercising  his  influence  for  peace,  and 
in  quieting  the  disturbed  frontiers.  This  was  his  em 
ployment  for  many  months  of  the  coldest  season  of  each 
year.  The  patriot  movements  were  chiefly  confined  to 
the  season  of  frost,  which,  bridging  with  ice  some  of 
the  waters  separating  the  two  countries,  greatly  favored 
descents  upon  Upper  Canada.  Scott  was  ably  second 
ed  in  watching  and  counteracting  those  movements  by 
distinguished  officers.  General  Brady,  on  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Detroit  frontier,  General  "Worth  (made  General 
1842)  on  the  Niagara,  Lake  Ontario,  and  St.  Lawrence 
frontier,  and  Generals  Wool  and  Eustis  on  the  northern 
side  of  New  York  and  Vermont,  were  active  in  aiding 
Scott  in  his  arrangements,  and  pacifying  the  borderers. 
The  troops,  both  regulars  and  volunteers,  proved  to 
be  steady  supporters  of  law  and  order,  and  were  held 
everywhere  ready,  as  posses^  at  the  call  of  the  United 


310  Subject  Continued. 

States  marshals  and  collectors.     The  army  officers  men 
tioned  were  the  district  commanders. 

3.  Scott  posted  himself  nowhere,  but  was  by  turns 
rapidly  everywhere,  and  always  in  the  midst  of  the 
greater  difficulties.     In  these  winter  campaigns  against 
the  trespassers  of  the  borders,  he  passed   frequently 
along  the  frontier,  sometimes  on  the  Detroit  and  some 
times  on  the  north  line  of  Yermont.     His  journeyings 
were  made  by  land,  and  principally  in   the  night; 
oftentimes  with  the  cold  from  ten  to  twenty  degrees 
below  freezing  point.     Daylight  he  chiefly  employed 
in  organizing  the  means  of  counteraction  by  an  exten 
sive  correspondence  and  the  labors  of  direct  pacifica 
tion.     He  obtained,  and  pressed  upon  Federal  district 
attorneys,  marshals,  and  collectors,  information  of  the 
designs  and  movements  of  the  patriots,  and  tendered 
to  those  civil  functionaries  the  aid  of  the  troops.     In 
performance  of  his  duty  as  a  peacemaker,  he  addressed, 
on  a  line  of  eight  hundred  miles,  immense  gatherings 
of  citizens,  principally   organized   sympathizers,  who 
had  their  arms  at  hand. 

4.  In  these  addresses  he  declaimed  with  fervor,  and 
they  were  often  received  with  the  loud  applause  of  the 
audience.     He  handled  every  topic  which  could  inspire 


Subject  Continued.  311 

shame  in  misdoers,  or  excite  pride  in  the  friends  of  the 
Government  and  country.  His  speeches  were  made 
with  popular  illustrations  and  allusions,  and  addressed 
both  to  the  knowledge  and  the  sentiment  of  the  people. 
He  reminded  them  of  the  nature  of  a  republic,  which 
can  have  no  foundation  of  permanency  except  in  the 
general  intelligence,  virtue,  respect,  and  obedience  of 
its  people ;  that  if,  in  the  attempt  to  force  on  unwilling 
neighbors  independence  and  free  institutions,  we  had 
first  to  spurn  and  trample  under  foot  treaty  stipulations 
and  laws  made  *by  our  own  representatives,  we  should 
greatly  hazard  free  institutions  at  home  in  the  confi 
dence  and  respect  of  our  own  people ;  that  no  govern 
ment  can  or  ought  to  exist  for  a  moment  after  losing 
the  power  of  executing  its  obligations  to  foreign  coun 
tries,  and  of  enforcing  its  own  laws  at  home ;  that  that 
power  depended  in  a  republic  chiefly  on  the  people 
themselves ;  that  we  had  a  treaty  with  England,  bind 
ing  us  to  the  strictest  observance  of  amity,  or  all  the 
duties  of  good  neighborhood  with  adjoining  provinces, 
and  also  an  act  of  Congress  for  enforcing  those  solemn 
obligations ;  that  the  treaty  and  the  laws  were  as  bind 
ing  on  the  honor  and  the  conscience  of  every  American 
freeman,  as  if  he  had  specially  voted  for  each ;  that  this 


312  Subject  Continued. 

doctrine  was  of  the  very  essence  of  a  civilized  republic, 
as  the  neglect  of  it  could  not  fail  to  sink  us  into  anarchy, 
barbarism,  and  universal  contempt ;  that  an  aggressive 
war,  waged  by  a  part  of  the  community,  without  just 
cause  and  without  preparation,  as  is  common  among 
barbarian  tribes,  necessarily  drags  the  non-consenting 
many  along  with  the  madness  of  the  few,  involving  all 
alike  in  crime,  disaster,  and  disgrace ;  that  a  war,  to 
be  successful,  must  be  very  differently  commenced; 
and  in  these  addresses  he  often  concluded :  "  Fellow- 
citizens, — and  I  thank  God,  we  have  a  common  gov 
ernment  as  well  as  a  common  origin, — I  stand  before 
you  without  troops  and  without  arms,  save  the  blade 
by  my  side.  I  am,  therefore,  within  your  power. 
Some  of  you  have  known  me  in  other  scenes,  and  all 
of  you  know  that  I  am  ready  to  do  what  my  country 
and  what  duty  demands.  I  tell  you,  then,  except  it  be 
over  my  body,  you  shall  not  pass  this  line — you  shall 
not  embark." 

5.  To  the  inquiry  everywhere  heard,  u  But  what 
say  you  of  the  burning  of  the  Caroline,  and  the  murder 
of  citizens  at  our  own  shore  ? " 

6.  In  reply  to  these  questions,  Scott  always  frankly 
admitted  that  these  acts  constituted  a  national  outrage, 


Subject  Continued.  313 

and  that  they  called  for  explanation  and  satisfaction ; 
but  that  this  whole  subject  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
President,  the  official  organ  of  the  country,  specially 
chosen  by  the  people  for  national  purposes ;  that  there 
was  no  doubt  the  President  would  make  the  proper 
demand,  and  failing  to  obtain  satisfaction,  would  lay 
the  whole  matter  before  Congress — the  representative 
of  the  public  will,  and  next  to  the  people,  the  tribunal 
before  which  the  ultimate  appeal  must  be  made. 

Y.  These  harangues  were  applauded,  and  were  gen 
erally  very  successful.  Masses  of  patriots  broke  off  and 
returned  to  their  respective  homes,  declaring,  that  if 
Scott  had  been  accompanied  by  an  army  they  would 
not  have  listened,  but  have  fought  him.  The  friends 
of  order  were  also  encouraged  to  come  out  in  support 
of  authority,  and  at  length  peace  and  quiet  were  re 
stored. 

8.  In  the  first  winter,  one  of  those  incidents  oc 
curred  which  make  history  dramatic,  and  which  illus 
trate  how  much  depends  on  individual  men  and  single 
events.  Many  days  after  the  destruction  of  the  "  Caro 
line,"  another  steamer,  the  "  Barcelona,"  was  cut  out 
of  the  ice  in  Buffalo  Harbor  (January,  1838),  and  taken 
down  the  Niagara  River,  to  be  offered,  as  was  known, 
14 


814:  Subject  Continued. 

to  the  patriots,  who  were  still  on  Navy  Island.*  Seott 
wished  to  compel  them  to  abandon  their  criminal  en 
terprise.  He  also  desired  to  have  them,  on  returning 
within  our  jurisdiction,  arrested  by  the  marshal,  who 
was  always  with  him.  For  this  purpose,  he  sent  an 
agent  to  hire  the  Barcelona  for  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  before  the  patriots  could  get  the  means  to  pay 
for  her,  or  find  sureties  to  indemnify  the  owners  in  case 
of  capture  or  destruction  by  the  British.  He  succeeded 
in  all  these  objects.  The  Barcelona  proceeded  back  to 
Buffalo,  where  Scott  had  immediate  use  for  her  on  Lake 
Erie,  yet  navigable  in  all  its  length.  The  authorities 
on  the  Canada  side  were  on  the  alert  to  destroy  her. 

9.  As  the  Barcelona  slowly  ascended  against  the 
current  on  our  side  of  Grand  Island  (belonging  to  the 
United  States),  three  armed  British  schooners,  besides 
batteries  on  the  land,  were  in  position,  as  the  day  be 
fore,  to  sink  her  as  she  came  out  from  behind  that 
island.  On  the  16th  of  January,  Scott  and  Governor 
Marcy  stood  on  the  American  shore  opposite  that  point, 
watching  events.  The  smoke  of  the  approaching  boat 
could  be  seen  in  the  distance,  and  the  purpose  of  the 
British  was  perfectly  evident  in  all  their  movements. 

*  53  Niles's  Register,  337. 


Conflict  of  Arms  Imminent.  315 

The  batteries  on  our  side  were  promptly  put  in  posi 
tion.  The  matches  were  lighted.  All  was  ready  to 
return  the  British  fire.  There  was  a  crisis ! 

10.  The  day  before  this,  when  it  was  supposed  the 
Navy  Island  people  were  coming  up  the  same  channel 
in  other  craft,  and  before  it  was  known  that  the  Barce 
lona  had  accepted  his  offered  engagement,  Scott  wrote 
on  his  knee,  and  despatched  by  an  aide-de-camp,  the 
following  note : 


To  the   Commanding  Officer  of  the  Armed  British 
Vessels  in  the  Niagara. 

HEADQUARTERS,  EASTERN  DIVISION  ) 
U.  S.  ARMY,  TWO  MILES  BELOW  > 
BLACK  ROCK,  January  15,  1838  ) 

11.  SIR: 

With  his  excellency  the  Governor  of  New  York, 
who  has  troops  at  hand,*  we  are  here  to  enforce  the 
neutrality  of  the  United  States,  and  to  protect  our  own 
soil  or  waters  from  violation.  The  proper  civil  officers 

*  These  men  were,  in  strictness,  not  yet  under  Scott's  command,  sim 
ply  from  the  want  of  time  to  muster  them  into  the  service  of  the  United 
States — a  ceremony  of  some  hours. 


316  Conflict  Imminent. 

are  also  present  to  arrest,  if  practicable,  the  leaders  of 
the  expedition  on  foot  against  Upper  Canada. 

12.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  gives  me  pain 
to  perceive  the  armed  vessels,  mentioned,  anchored  in 
our  waters,  with  the  probable  intention  to  fire  upon 
that  expedition  moving  in  the  same  waters. 

13.  Unless  the  expedition  should  first  attack — in 
which  case  we  shall  interfere — we  shall  be  obliged  to 
consider  a  discharge  of  shot  or  shell  from  or  into  our 
waters,  from  the  armed  schooners  of  her  Majesty,  as  an 
act  seriously  compromising  the  neutrality  of  the  two 
nations.     I  hope,  therefore,  that  no  such  unpleasant 
incident  may  occur. 

I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  etc.,  etc., 

WINFIELD   SCOTT. 

14.  The  same  intimation  was  repeated  and  explained 
the  next  morning,  January  16th,  to  a  captain  of  the 
British  army,  who  had  occasion  to  wait  upon  Scott  on 
other  business,  and  who  immediately  returned.     It  was 
just  then  that  the  Barcelona  moved  up  the  current  of 
the  Niagara.     The  cannon  on  either  shore  were  point 
ed,  the  matches  lighted,  and  thousands  stood  in  sus 
pense.     On  the  jutting  pier  of  Black  Kock,  in  view  of 


The  Frontiers  Quieted — Change  of  Duty.     317 

all,  stood  the  tall  form  of  Scott,  in  full  uniform,  watch 
ing  the  approaching  boat.  On  Scott's  note  and  his 
personal  assurances,  alone  depended  the  question  of 
PEACE  or  WAR.  Happily,  these  assurances  had  their 
just  effect.  The  Barcelona  passed  along.  The  British 
did  not  fire.  The  matches  were  extinguished,  and  the 
two  nations,  gnided  by  wise  counsels,  resumed  their 
nsual  way. 

(The  fourteen  numbered  paragraphs  immediately 
preceding,  are  quoted,  omitting  complimentary  epi 
thets,  almost  literally  from  Mansfield's  Life  and  Services 
of  the  autobiographer,  from  whose  copious  notes — omit 
ting  those  epithets  of  the  partial  editor — they  had  been 
copied,  including  the  quotation  from  Byron.) 

The  frontiers  being  for  the  time  quieted  by  the 
means  narrated,  by  the  thaw  of  the  spring,  and  the  re 
turn  of  the  farming  season  of  industry,  Scott  was  called 
to  Washington  and  ordered  thence  to  the  Southwest — 
charged  with  the  delicate  duty  of  removing  the  Chero 
kee  Indians,  under  certain  treaty  stipulations,  to  their 
new  country  on  the  upper  Arkansas  River.  This  work 
unavoidably  fell  upon  the  military,  and  with  carte 
llanche,  from  President  Yan  Buren,  under  his  sign 
manual— Mr.  Secretary  Poinsett  being  very  ill — Scott 


318  Removal  of  Cherokee  Indians. 

undertook  the  painful  duty — with  the  firm  resolve  that 
it  should  be  done  judiciously,  if  possible,  and,  certainly, 
in  mercy. 

The  number  of  volunteers  called  for  by  Scott's  pre 
decessor  (Colonel  Lindsay)  in  that  special  command, 
independent  of  a  few  regulars,  was  overwhelming. 
Hence  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  would 
have  been  madness.  The  Cherokees  were  an  interest 
ing  people — the  greater  number  Christians,  and  many 
as  civilized  as  their  neighbors  of  the  white  race.  Be 
tween  the  two  colors  intermarriages  had  been  frequent. 
They  occupied  a  contiguous  territory — healthy  moun 
tains,  valleys,  and  plains  lying  in  North  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Tennessee.  Most  of  their  lead 
ing  men  had  received  good  educations,  and  possessed 
much  ability.  Some  were  quite  wealthy  in  cultivated 
farms,  good  houses,  cattle  of  every  kind,  and  negro 
slaves.  Gardens  and  orchards  were  seen  everywhere, 
and  the  women  graceful,  with,  in  many  cases,  added 
beauty.  Of  course  the  mixed  races  are  here  particular 
ly  alluded  to.  The  mountaineers  were  still  wild  men, 
but  little  on  this  side  of  their  primordial  condition. 

The  North  Carolinians  and  Tennesseans  were  kind 
ly  disposed  toward  their  red  brethren.  The  Alabami- 


Subject  Continued.  319 

ans  much  less  so.  The  great  difficulty  was  with  the 
Georgians  (more  than  half  the  army),  between  whom 
and  the  Cherokees  there  had  been  feuds  and  wars  for 
many  generations.  The  reciprocal  hatred  of  the  two 
races  was  probably  never  surpassed.  Almost  every 
Georgian,  on  leaving  home,  as  well  as  after  arrival  at 
New  Echota, — the  centre  of  the  most  populous  district 
of  the  Indian  territory — vowed  never  to  return  with 
out  having  killed  at  least  one  Indian.  This  ferocious 
language  was  the  more  remarkable  as  the  great  body 
of  these  citizens — perhaps,  seven  in  ten — were  profes 
sors  of  religion.  The  Methodist,  Baptist,  and  other 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  of  Mercy,  had  been  extensive 
ly  abroad  among  them ;  but  the  hereditary  animosity 

• 

alluded  to  caused  the  Georgians  to  forget,  or,  at  least, 
to  deny,  that  a  Cherokee  was  a  human  being.  It  was, 
however,  to  that  general  religious  feeling  which  Scott 
had  witnessed  in  the  Georgia  troops,  both  in  Florida 
and  on  the  Chattahoochee  in  1836,  that  he  now  meant 
to  appeal,  and  on  which  he  placed  his  hopes  of  avoid 
ing  murder  and  other  atrocities.  And  as  will  be  seen 
that  blessed  sentiment  responded. 

The  autobiographer  arrived  at  the  Cherokee  Agency, 
a  small  village  on  the  Hiawassee,  within  the  edge  of 


320  Subject  Continued. 

Tennessee,  early  in  May,  1838,  and  published  the  sub 
joined  addresses  to  the  troops  and  Indians.  Both  were 
printed  at  the  neighboring  village,  Athens,  and  to 
show  singleness  of  feeling  and  policy,  the  two  papers 
were  very  extensively  circulated  together,  among  all 
concerned. 


Extracts  from  General  Orders,  or  the  Address  to  the 
Troops. 

HEADQUARTERS,  EASTERN  DIVISION,      > 
CHEROKEE  AGENCY,  May  17,  1838.  \ 

Considering  the  number  and  temper  of  the  mass 
to  be  removed,  together  with  the  extent  and  fastnesses 
of  the  country  occupied,  it  will  readily  occur  that  sim 
ple  indiscretions,  acts  of  harshness  and  cruelty  on  the 
part  of  our  troops  may  lead,  step  by  step,  to  delays,  to 
impatience,  and  exasperation,  and,  in  the  end,  to  a  gen 
eral  war  and  carnage — a  result,  in  the  case  of  these  par 
ticular  Indians,  utterly  abhorrent  to  the  generous  sym 
pathies  of  the  whole  American  people.  Every  possible 
kindness,  compatible  with  the  necessity  of  removal, 
must,  therefore,  be  shown  by  the  troops ;  and  if,  in  the 
ranks,  a  despicable  individual  should  be  found  capable 


Subject  Continued.  321 

of  inflicting  a  wanton  injury  or. insult  on  any  Cherokee 
man,  woman,  or  child,  it  is  hereby  made  the  special 
duty  of  the  nearest  good  officer  or  man  instantly  to 
interpose,  and  to  seize  and  consign  the  guilty  wretch 
to  the  severest  penalty  of  the  laws.  The  major-general 
is  fully  persuaded  that  this  injunction  will  not  be  neg 
lected  by  the  brave  men  under  his  command,  who  can 
not  be  otherwise  than  jealous  of  their  own  honor  and 
that  of  their  country. 

"  By  early  and  persevering  acts  of  kindness  and 
humanity,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  Indians 
may  soon  be  induced  to  confide  in  the  army,  and,  in 
stead  of  fleeing  to  mountains  and  forests,  flock  to  us  for 
food  and  clothing.  If,  however,  through  false  appre 
hensions,  individuals,  or  a  party  here  and  there,  should 
seek  to  hide  themselves,  they  must  be  pursued  and  in 
vited  to  surrender,  but  not  fired  upon,  unless  they 
should  make  a  stand  to  resist.  Even  in  such  cases, 
mild  remedies  may  sometimes  better  succeed  than  vio 
lence  ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted,  if  we  get  possession 
of  the  women  and  children  first,  or  first  capture  the 
men,  that,  in  either  case,  the  outstanding  members  of 
the  same  families  will  readily  come  in  on  the  assurance 

of  forgiveness  and  kind  treatment. 
14* 


322  Subject  Continued. 

"  Every  captured  man,  as  well  as  all  who  surrender 
themselves,  must  be  disarmed,  with  the  assurance  that 
their  weapons  will  be  carefully  preserved  and  restored 
at,  or  beyond  the  Mississippi.  In  either  case,  the  men 
will  be  guarded  and  escorted,  except  it  may  be  where 
their  women  and  children  are  safely  secured  as  hosta 
ges  ;  but,  in  general,  families  in  our  possession  will  not 
be  separated,  unless  it  be  to  send  men,  as  runners,  to 
invite  others  to  come  in. 

"  It  may  happen  that  Indians  will  be  found  too  sick, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  nearest  surgeon,  to  be  removed  to 
one  of  the  depots  indicated  above.  In  every  such  case, 
one  or  more  of  the  family  or  the  friends  of  the  sick 
person  will  be  left  in  attendance,  with  ample  subsist 
ence  and  remedies,  and  the  remainder  of  the  family 
removed  by  the  troops.  Infants,  superannuated  per 
sons,  lunatics,  and  women  in  helpless  condition,  will 
all,  in  the  removal,  require  peculiar  attention,  which 
the  brave  and  humane  will  seek  to  adapt  to  the  neces 
sities  of  the  several  cases." 


Subject  Continued.  323 


"MAJOR -GENERAL  SCOTT,  of  the  United 
States'  Army,  sends  to  the  Cherokee  people  remain 
ing  in  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  and 
Alabama  this 

ADDRESS. 

"  Cherokees  :— The  President  of  the  United  States 
has  sent  me,  with  a  powerful  army,  to  cause  you,  in 
obedience  to  the  treaty  of  1835,  to  join  that  part  of 
your  people  who  are  already  established  in  prosperity 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Unhappily,  the 
two  years  which  were  allowed  for  the  purpose,  you 
have  suffered  to  pass  away  without  following,  and  with 
out  making  any  preparation  to  follow,  and  now,  or  by 
the  time  that  this  solemn  address  shall  reach  your  dis 
tant  settlements,  the  emigration  must  be  commenced  in 
haste,  but,  I  hope,  without  disorder.  I  have  no  power, 
by  granting  a  farther  delay,  to  correct  the  error  that 
you.  have  committed.  The  full  moon  of  May  is  already 
on  the  wane,  and  before  another  shall  have  passed 
away,  every  Cherokee  man,  woman,  and  child,  in  those 
States,  must  be  in  motion  to  join  their  brethren  in  the 
far  West. 


324  Subject  Continued. 

"  My  friends — This  is  no  sudden  determination  on 
the  part  of  the  President,  whom  you  and  I  must  now 
obey.  By  the  treaty,  the  emigration  was  to  have  been 
completed  on  or  before  the  23d  of  this  month,  and  the 
President  has  constantly  kept  you  warned,  during  the 
two  years  allowed,  through  all  his  officers  and  agents 
in  this  country,  that  the  treaty  would  be  enforced. 

"  I  am  come  to  carry  out  that  determination.  My 
troops  already  occupy  many  positions  in  the  country 
that  you  are  to  abandon,  and  thousands  and  thousands 
are  approaching  from  every  quarter,  to  render  resist 
ance  and  escape  alike  hopeless.  All  those  troops,  regu 
lar  and  militia,  are  your  friends.  •  Receive  them  and 
confide  in  them  as  such.  Obey  them  when  they  tell 
you  that  you  can .  remain  no  longer  in  this  country. 
Soldiers  are  as  kind-hearted  as  brave,  and  the  desire  of 
every  one  of  us  is  to  execute  our  painful  duty  in  mercy. 
"We  are  commanded  by  the  President  to  act  toward  you 
in  that  spirit,  and  such  is  also  the  wish  of  the  whole 
people  of  America. 

"  Chiefs,  head  men,  and  warriors — "Will  you  then, 
by  resistance,  compel  us  to  resort  to  arms  ?  God  for 
bid  !  Or  will  you,  by  flight,  seek  to  hide  yourselves  in 
mountains  and  forests,  and  thus  oblige  us  to  hunt  you 


Subject  Continued.  325 

down  ?  Remember  that,  in  pursuit,  it  may  be  impossi 
ble  to  avoid  conflicts.  The  blood  of  the  white  man,  or 
the  blood  of  the  red  man,  may  be  spilt,  and  if  spilt, 
however  accidentally,  it  may  be  impossible  for  the  dis 
creet  and  humane  among  you,  or  among  us,  to  prevent 
a  general  war  and  carnage.  Think  of  this,  my  Chero 
kee  brethren !  I  am  an  old  warrior,  and  have  been 
present  at  many  a  scene  of  slaughter ;  but  spare  me,  I 
beseech  you,  the  horror  of  witnessing  the  destruction 
of  the  Cherokees. 

"  Do  not,  I  invite  you,  even  wait  for  the  close  ap 
proach  of  the  troops ;  but  make  such  preparations  for 
emigration  as  you  can,  and  hasten  to  this  place,  to 
Ross's  Landing,  or  to  Gunter's  Landing,  where  you 
will  all  be  received  in  kindness  by  officers  selected  for 
the  purpose.  You  will  find  food  for  all,  and  clothing 
for  the  destitute,  at  either  of  those  places,  and  thence 
at  your  ease,  and  in  comfort,  be  transported  to  your 
new  homes  according  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 

"  This  is  the  address  of  a  warrior  to  warriors.  May 
his  entreaties  be  kindly  received,  and  may  the  God  of 
both  prosper  the  Americans  and  Cherokees,  and  preserve 
them  long  in  peace  and  friendship  with  each  other. 

"WLNTIELD  SCOTT." 


326  Subject  Continued. 

There  was  some  delay  in  bringing  in  the  mountain 
eers  of  North  Carolina ;  but  most  of  the  people  residing 
in  Tennessee  and  Alabama  were  readily  collected  for 
emigration.  Scott  remained  with  the  Georgians,  and 
followed  up  his  printed  addresses  by  innumerable  les 
sons  and  entreaties. 

The  latter  troops  commenced  in  their  own  State  the 
collection  of  the  Indians,  with  their  movable  effects, 
May  26.  Scott  looked  on  in  painful  anxiety.  Food 
in  abundance  had  been  provided  at  the  depots,  and 
wagons  accompanied  every  detachment  of  troops.  The 
Georgians  distinguished  themselves  by  their  humanity 
and  tenderness.  Before  the  first  night  thousands — 
men,  women,  and  children — sick  and  well  were  brought 
in.  Poor  creatures  !  They  had  obstinately  refused  to 
prepare  for  the  removal.  Many  arrived  half-starved, 
but  refused  the  food  that  was  pressed  upon  them.  At 
length,  the  children,  with  less  pride,  gave  way,  and 
next  their  parents.  The  Georgians  were  the  waiters 
on  the  occasion — many  of  them  with  flowing  tears. 
The  autobiographer  has  never  witnessed  a  scene  of 
deeper  pathos. 

Some  cheerfulness,  after  awhile,  began  to  show  it 
self,  when,  counting  noses,  one  family  found  that  a 


Subject  Continued.  327 

child,  another  an  aged  aunt,  etc.,  had  been  left 
behind.  Instantly  dozens  of  the  volunteers  asked  for 
wagons,  or  saddle  horses,  with  guides,  to  bring  in  the 
missing. 

In  a  few  days,  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood, 
the  Indians,  with  the  exception  of  small  fragments, 
were  collected — those  of  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
Tennessee,  at  the  Agency,  in  a  camp  twelve  miles  by 
four ;  well  shaded,  watered  with  perennial  springs,  and 
flanked  by  the  Hiawassee.  The  locale  was  happily 
chosen,  as  a  most  distressing  drought  of  some  four 
months — counting  from  about  the  middle  of  June — 
came  upon  the  whole  Southwestern  country,  that 
stopped  any  movement  to  the  "West  till  November; 
for  the  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  and  Arkansas  Rivers 
ceased  to  be  navigable  by  the  beginning  of  July ;  and 
on  the  land  route,  to  the  Arkansas,  there  were  many 
spaces  of  twenty,  forty,  and  even  sixty  miles,  without 
sufficient  water  for  the  inhabitants  and  their  cattle. 
The  other  camps  of  emigration  were  also  shaded  and 
watered.  Scott  caused  the  few  sick  to  be  well  attended 
by  good  physicians;  all  proper  subjects  to  be  vacci 
nated  ;  rode  through  the  principal  camp  almost  daily, 
and  having  placed  the  emigration  in  the  hands  of  the 


328  Subject  Continued. 

Cherokee  authorities  themselves — after  winning  the 
confidence  of  all — was  at  liberty,  at  an  early  day,  to 
the  great  benefit  of  the  treasury,  to  send  all  the  volun 
teers  to  their  respective  homes,  except  a  single  com 
pany.  A  regiment  of  regulars,  to  meet  contingencies, 
was  also  retained.  Two  others  were  despatched  to 
Florida  and  the  Canada  frontiers.  The  company  of 
volunteers  (Tennesseeans)  were  a  body  of  respectable 
citizens,  and  under  their  judicious  commander,  Captain 
Robertson,  of  great  value  as  a  police  force.  The  Chero- 
kees  were  receiving  from  Government  immense  sums ; 
as  fast  as  decreed  by  a  civil  commission  (then  in  ses 
sion)  in  the  way  of  damages  and  indemnities,  which 
attracted  swarms  of  gamblers,  sleight-of-hand  men, 
blacklegs,  and  other  desperadoes.  The  camp  was  kept 
cleansed  of  all  such  vermin  by  the  military  police — a 
duty  which,  probably,  would  have  been  resisted  if  it 
had  devolved  on  regular  troops. 

At  length,  late  in  October  rain  began  to  fall  and 
the  rivulets  to  flow.  In  a  week  or  two,  the  rivers  were 
again  navigable.  All  were  prepared  for  the  exodus. 
Power  had  said : 

"  There  lies  your  way,  due  West." 


Westward,  ho!  329 

And  a  whole  people  now  responded : 

"  Then  Westward— ho ! " 

They  took  their  way,  if  not  rejoicing,  at  least  in 
comfort. 

"  Some  natural  tears  they  dropt,  but  wiped  them  soon." 

Many  of  the  miseries  of  life  they  had  experienced; 
but  hope — a  worldly,  as  well  as  a  Christian's  hope, 
cheered  them  on.  Scott  followed  up  the  movement 
nearly  to  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi, 
where  he  gave  his  parting  blessing  to  a  people  who 
had  long  shared  his  affectionate  cares.  He  has  reason 
to  believe  that,  on  the  whole,  their  condition  has  been 
improved  by  transportation. 

In  the  foregoing  labor  of  necessity — executed,  it  is 
felt,  in  mercy — the  autobiographer  was  well  supported 
by  his  Acting  Inspector-General,  Major  M.  M.  Payne 
(subsequently  Colonel),  who,  if  living  (January,  1864), 
is  somewhere  in  Virginia,  bedridden,  from  a  wound  re 
ceived  in  one  of  General  Taylor's  battles  on  this  side 
of  the  Rio  Grande;  by  Captain  Robert  Anderson, 
Assistant  Adjutant-General,  since  the  hero  of  Fort 
Sumter,  and  a  Brigadier-General  of  the  army ;  by  Lieu- 


330  End  of  the  Emigration. 

tenant  E.  D.  Keyes,  Aide-de-Camp,  now  Major-General 
United  States'  Volunteers ;  Lieutenant  Francis  Taylor, 
of  the  Commissariat,  now  long  deceased;  Captains 
Page  and  Hetzel,  Quartermasters;  Lieutenant  H.  L. 
Scott,  since  Aide-de-Camp  and  Inspector-General,  then 
of  the  United  States'  4th  Infantry,  and  by  Major  H.  B. 
Shaw,  Extra  Aide-de-Camp,  Tennessee  Volunteers, 
since  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Louisiana  bar,  re 
siding  in  Corcordia  and  Natchez — besides  Colonel  Wil 
liam  Lindsay,  2d  Artillery,  and  Colonel  William  S. 
Poster,  4th  Infantry.  Colonel  I.  B.  Crane,  1st  Artil 
lery,  participated  handsomely  in  the  same  service. 


END  OF  VOL.  I. 


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5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


SEP  U  1986 

'AUTO.  DISC  JAN  12  '87 

OPT  oft  1988 

J  U  '     v        I*/  w 

AUTOOISC.SEP27'88 

DEC  2ft  iqoo 

**w   fVVV 

AU10DISC.OEn27  ft 

, 

DEC  1  8  2000 

FORM  NO.  DD6, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


v  Ct 
ID 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -U.C.  BERKELEY 


BOOOflWlB32 


E 


19SB 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


